In many countries, there are various levels of difficulty for foreigners trying to buy real estate there. Somewhere, it is not possible in principle for some foreigners; somewhere, a number of conditions must be met in order to buy; in some countries, there are certain areas where you cannot buy property; and so on. Here is a list of countries where there may be difficulties in buying an apartment or a house and outline the important details in each case.
Because of these restrictions, many high-net-worth individuals and global investors explore alternative legal pathways that provide greater mobility and property rights abroad. Programs such as Caribbean CBI offer investors a way to gain second citizenship, which can significantly simplify real estate purchases in multiple jurisdictions where foreign ownership is otherwise limited.
Naturally Australia is not listed below.
Contents:
Austria
Hungary
Vietnam
Greece
Denmark
Canada
Cyprus
UAE
Malta
Mexico
Poland
Saudi Arabia
Slovenia
Singapore
Thailand
Turkey
Lithuania
New Zealand
Finland
Switzerland
Montenegro
Estonia
Source: https://realting.com/news/where-it-is-banned-or-hard-for-foreigners-to-buy-real-estate
Foreigners can buy property in Australia, but they must generally obtain approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) via the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) before purchasing. Rules prioritize new dwellings or vacant land to increase housing stock, with restrictions often placed on buying established, existing homes.
Key Rules and Restrictions for Foreign Buyers
- Approval Needed: Non-residents must apply for approval to buy residential property.
- New Dwellings/Vacant Land: Foreigners are generally allowed to purchase new, never-lived-in dwellings or vacant land.
- Established Dwellings: Buying existing homes is usually prohibited, except for specific, limited circumstances (e.g., redevelopment that increases housing stock).
- Temporary Residents: Those with a temporary visa (e.g., 482, 491) can buy one established dwelling to live in, but it must be sold when they leave.
- Fees and Taxes: Foreigners pay application fees to the ATO and significant surcharge stamp duties, which vary by state (e.g., 8% in NSW).
- Penalties: Purchasing without FIRB approval can lead to heavy fines or forced divestment (sale) of the property
It is open slather for foreigners to buy new homes which is why the housing market has gone through the roof denying young Aussie first home buyers their right to buy a home. The housing industry today said the cost of new homes in Brisbane had increased by 15.7 per cent since this time last year.
China sits on a substantial residential and commercial land bank for future housing subdivisions similar to Woolies and Coles which have a significant commercial land bank to cater for future regional growth and to keep out competitors.
Both Labor and Liberal support this policy.
Nearly 3000 building companies went out of business in 2024 and the rate of bankruptcies has not declined since then. Builders we have spoken to say the federal and state government’s tough building environmental codes have added more then $20,000 to an average home and the building material supply chain has been severely affected since Covid.
Kalergi plan on steroids downunder.
The TV news a few days ago was saying fully half the cost of a new house was government tax and compliance. We also hear Elbow has stacked on employees to boost the employment numbers. All these ALP voters who work for the government seem allergic to work. Government workers don’t pay tax because all the income they get is from tax. Therefore any tax they pay is just returning the portion they didn’t “earn”. The people who earn the money are farmers, miners, and a dwindling number of manufacturers. They are typically harassed and taxed to the eyeballs by the government. Perhaps we need to really define who has paid tax and who hasn’t. Then the non-payers could be denied a house, along with the foreigners. This could be an economic adjustment that Australia really benefits from.
In regard to ant’a comment re: foreign workers, the feds will have spent billion since before the turn of the century on Job Network Providers forcing peopel to d courses, etc.
A friend of mine has done every course under the sun but never scored a job, for some inexplicable reason, and the government does not insist that dole recipients do actually go and look for work, as they are supposed to.
Kevin Rudd’s wife’ s company was worth some $200 million in the end, doing that job placement thing.
So I have just had a look at what these JNPs get when they put someone in a job-and even for a four week term\
https://www.dewr.gov.au/download/11385/workforce-australia-employment-services-provider-payments/41810/workforce-australia-employment-services-provider-payments/pdf
You will see immigrants working everywhere, if you care to look, and I would bet that they are subsidised by the government, as I suspect are the immigrant employees at my local green grocer and elsewhere.
Link to the main website I got the above link from:
https://www.dewr.gov.au/workforce-australia/resources/workforce-australia-employment-services-provider-payments
A while back I wrote to a restaurant owner in Queenscliff who was employing 70 year olds to work in his restaurants, telling him to nail the local federal MPs to make the local kids go and work.
Iddles never replied (business people are okay with anything as long as they are making a quid) but the upshot is that youngsters often just will not work, as they are happy living at mum and dd’s and getting the dole.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/vic-statewide-mornings/barry-iddles-older-workers/101656000
Is this just another part of the process of white-anting the country, maybe?
There’s only 100 million CCP members in China, loaded on all bases. With those numbers alone, not considering others cashed up, our youth doesn’t stand a chance.
Oz continues being sold to richest bidders as we locals have sfa say in it. Guess it’s all Kalergi Plan, from most affordable in ‘76 to most unaffordable worldwide in ‘26.
All thanks to corruption stinking to high heaven.
“Everything is broken.”
We don’t even need trades anymore, make the kit in China ship it here and get new arrivals/replacements to assemble the stuff coming in containers.
With an oversupply of containers, maybe our youth can be sold them at a reasonable price ! A debtors gulag on steroids, and banksters won’t have it any other way. Keep on voting with pencils as CCP plain clothed stand next to ballot boxes.
Yes David, those changes would definitely help balance things out.
I met a princeling from China who spent a year in Brisbane operating as a buyers agent (for an undeclared entity from the land of the CCP). His claim was that he was part of a group who bought up large chunks of 2 suburbs adjacent to Sunnybank Hills. He was a ‘Uni student’. It’s easy to use local businesses/partners to ‘invest’ the proceeds because the Una Party does not care. The Fabian plan to destroy the traditional family unit is well advanced.
I don’t know what things are going to look like when UBI becomes the norm.
Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours, with a little understanding,
of Muzis, Paki’s, Hindus, Chinks blacks or Jews, they can find their perfect place
That’s when bad neighbours have come to you, until two million FO we’re full.
There should be an immediate freeze on all foreign purchases of new residential housing stock, along with a freeze on all immigration (other than skilled migrants in high demand industries incl: trades) until the market catches up, and housing prices fall to affordable levels for first home owners on low and middle incomes. Additionally the Govt should adopt the dumped Shorten plan to reduce the overly generous Howard-era CGT tax discount from 50% to 25%, and cap negative gearing to one newly constructed dwelling (both grandfathered for buyers who bought homes under the old rules). Those 4 steps would significantly reduce the cost of housing in Australian capital cities. But the Govt could do more, and should be investing heavily in Tafes and offering free trades courses to get Aussies back on the tools, and should work with State Govts to expand urban grown boundaries to free up supply, and cut red tape for developers (such as the requirement to build road and other infrastructure in large estates, which is then passed on to buyers).
Aussies are not entitled to home ownership or even place to live. They voted for a gov that introduced taxpayer subsidies to private property investors, so boomer property prices could increase year after year. Young Aussies are priced out of the market because their forbearers voted for it. Don’t like it? Well touch luck, just vote a different shabbos goy next election.
More white Aussies are homeless than ever before. Meanwhile, Mr Abdul from Syria is living in social housing, while his 3 wives live in separate public housing places by claiming to be victims of DV or single parents.
Be a good goy and keep paying taxes to a gov that hates you.
Aussies = bovine.
[…] Source link […]