CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Last night’s budget has revealed that the government’s plan to tackle housing affordability will introduce a new ‘ghost tax’ on foreign property investors who buy Australian homes and leave them vacant as part of a wider housing package.
It is believed the fee charged to foreign investors who leave properties vacant as part of the East Coast land banking phenomenon could be as much as $5000.
This news has rattled Swedish furniture magnate Sigmund Lillson (55), who decided to invest $3 million of his $300 million net worth into a banged up fibro shack in East Sydney’s Bondi Junction.
“This is communism” he said.
“How dare they tax me $5000 dollars for owning land in a country I don’t live in or ever visit”
“That’s at least 0.17% of the amount I got a Sydney-based buyers agent to pay at the auction”
This shocking example of intrusive government policy comes just a month after another overseas investor, Chinese national, 百家姓, outbid eight Aussie families to a pretty shitty home that he’ll never step foot in.
As a member of the 13,823,233 people that make up China’s richest one percent, the 42-year-old investor says it’s hilarious that Australian Government lets him compete with their own citizens for family homes.
“I already own five” he laughed.
“What is with you guys letting us do this”
Morrison has told ABC radio foreign investors buying units as a form of passive investment — effectively taking stock out of the market by not tenanting them — was something that the government would make sure they were seen to be acting on.
Estimates vary on how many properties have been left vacant across the country but some predictions put the number as high as 300,000 – as people around the world with over 1.5 million dollars to burn realise that Australia’s property market is the surest bet since Pharlap.
