CAAN looks at “Cashed-up foreign buyers still seek Australian property, but are they really to blame for price rises?”

-Is the wool being pulled over our eyes?

The latest survey from the Foreign Investment Review Board (the FIRB) indicates that ‘overseas buyers purchasing activity has hit record lows’ … falling to 7,056 this year from 40,141 in 2015-16 … hm …

Foreign buyers already have their Onshore Proxies here whose clients have been flying in … in the hundreds of thousands for two decades …

So they are already here … they are ‘Permanent Residents’ …

During the Pandemic could real estate agents have been dealing with these Proxies, or negotiating sales online for first home buyers (FHBs) from South-East Asia? Eh?

As revealed in a number of reports shared on CAAN Australian home buyers including FHBs appear to have been set-up (wiped out) by a number of factors including the price push from this property sector, low interest rates, government grants, and wealthy foreign cash buyers pushing up prices for a very limited supply of housing!

… much of the Australian housing stock is investor-owned

CoreLogic says international buyer demand has dropped over the past six years yet Agents tell us that there is a lot of foreign money around … it does not stretch the imagination too far to figure that with the onshore Proxy that many sales appear to be Australian …(Chinese-Australian, Indonesian-Australian, Vietnamese-Australian, Indian-Australian)  … contemplate the possibility … the likelihood that through an onshore proxy that this has concealed the extent of foreign buying of what was Australian real estate …

–Are International Buyers taking over?

Through visa manipulation a ‘Permanent Resident’ can buy homes for Family members …

Initially having flown into Australia as a Student to purchase ‘a new home’, and gained their PR Visa, this visa holder then seeks to bring out their family through a ‘Family Visa’ and the like …

And here it is in ‘black and white’ from this article:

‘Many first-home buyers are migrants who recently acquired their PR (permanent residency), and they are highly motivated by their new access to the government’s support packages and benefits for first-home buyers.’  

It would seem they have gained this PR Visa as family migrant members.  And their adult children can then gain access to the government’s First Home Buyer benefits.

Looks like more special treatment for ‘new residents’ that Australian Taxpayers have worked to fund over decades …

This decade Australians including the Tran-Smiths have had some bad experiences.

‘A real estate agent gave us a cold shoulder at a property viewing in Hurstville but treated foreign families with a completely different attitude,’ Mrs Tran-Smith said.

Others have informed CAAN where they have noticed agents engaging warmly with Asian buyers after they were dismissed … A woman told us that on arrival at an inspection the agent scowled at her, and rudely waived her to his junior.  This agent was later seen chatting warmly with a likely old Daigou …  

So blatant!  

Later this Australian buyer said she emailed this firm for a copy of the contract and Building/Pest Report the junior agent called her, and said they have been sent … with a follow up call from this agent he crazily abused her!  What is going on?

In another instance, a couple told us that one agent repeatedly wrote in his emails that he would forward the contract and link to the Building Report.  Neither document was received. They requested he forward the documents by return email.  To no avail!

Yet after the auction he then forwarded these documents!  So what is going on?

-‘Australia is the Swiss Bank of the Asia-Pacific Region’

Of course, agents and fellow Real Estate Gatekeepers blatantly prefer foreign black money because the Morrison Government made them exempt from the Anti-Money Laundering Laws in October 2018! 

And this has inflated house prices obviously … through cash side deals …

–Why are Aussie properties so attractive?

Of course, international buyers including South-East Asian buyers will have an amazing sense of ‘certainty and security’ when buying our real estate … it is a win/win for them as they gain ‘Permanent Residency’ on such a purchase!  And they can then go on a real estate buying spree …

The FIRB advises that foreigners can only purchase a ‘new home’ and not our established housing … who took this seriously?

… So they buy a one-bedroom apartment … gain the Permanent Resident Visa … and can then purchase a number of established homes if they so desire … or more ‘new homes’ … indeed Australia is the Swiss Bank for South-East Asians. 

–Desirable Foreign Buyers

It’s as though the stable economy, the legal system and safe haven for preserving wealth and comprehensive protection for property owners has been legislated for them!

Migrants from earlier programmes tell us there were no property deals like this for them!

Wealthy Chinese especially from the mainland, Hong Kong, and Singapore, investors from Indonesia and Vietnam … with Australia being the closest developed country to Asia, are lured, obviously by our blue sky, gum trees, beautiful beaches, public schools and hospitals!  Free!

And apartment blocks built especially for them … where they have been able to buy up a whole floor … with no real competition because Australians don’t have the cash to buy a floor!  Many cannot afford an apartment!  Locked out!!

Real Estate Agent, Mr Tran says he treats all clients equally yet he specialises in selling our real estate to South-East Asian buyers … it would appear that is because many of these clients are high-end, and cashed-up obviously willing to make quick decisions with the benefits attached to such a deal!

–Buyers Lives are on Hold!

Taken up with exploring listings websites … in some instances driving hundreds of Kms a week  … medical and dental appointments are cancelled … gatherings with friends and family are postponed to fit in property inspections often during the week too! 

It is exhausting as these reports reveal as prices continue to rise! 20.3% over 12 months!  

It is bizarre with much of the housing on the market defective!  Buyers so pent-up … from the torture of years of a cooked market from overseas competition …

So many homes on the market with termite muddying up into the roof timbers, water penetration in lower ground rooms, loose-fill asbestos insulation, dodgy renos, and concrete cancer in the slab. 

Where will the money come from to carry out repairs after $6,000 – $8000 monthly mortgage payments?

-Prices are still Rising because Hot Money is awash in our Real Estate Market

Apart from money launderers gaining Permanent Residency, who else benefits from the price hikes?

It appears some are lawless in this sector … hiding behind low mortgage rates alleging that Australians (who have been enduring the lowest wages growth) have more household savings … some may do … agree the Morrison Government incentives pushed up prices because for years FHBs have been locked out, and were desperate to take up any offer!

Why did some of these real estate agents in January 2021 pump up prices by $200,000 with $2M houses and not the guide of $1.5M as they did weeks previously with like properties? … If it were not to set this price hike in train?

IT is obvious there is much foreign ‘hot money’ awash in what was Australian real estate …

Related Article: “Cashed-up foreign buyers still seek Australian property, but are they really to blame for price rises?”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-26/international-buyers-role-in-rising-property-prices/100565494