Peter Dutton who yesterday said his plan to improve housing was to stop foreigners investing despite earlier this year conceding foreign ownership isn’t the issue with housing…
Article:
Peter Dutton has conceded only a tiny fraction of property sales in Australia are made by foreign residents, after struggling to say what the effect of his newly announced population policy would be on the housing market. The opposition leader used his budget reply speech on Thursday night to pledge a Coalition government would slash permanent migration, cutting arrivals by a quarter to 140,000 a year, and ban foreign investors and temporary residents from buying established homes for two years.
Loading He said the plan would free up 100,000 properties and help Australians by “restoring the dream of homeownership”, The Coalition’s cut to the permanent migrant intake from 185,000 to 140,000 would take the metric to its lowest level for 20 years, amid continuing labour shortages that threaten to keep inflation high. But, challenged on Friday morning about the number of overseas migrants who purchase property in Australia, Mr Dutton could not say.
Advertisement “The number of people who are foreign citizens, who are buying houses in our country is low, but nonetheless it contributes to an overall shortage of housing in our country,” he told Channel Nine. “When you combine it all together, when you combine it all together it is pretty significant.” Treasury data showed from July 2021 to June 2022 there were 4228 residential real estate purchases by foreign owners. New dwellings represented 52.1 per cent of the purchase transactions, followed by 31.7 per cent for established dwellings, totalling about 1350 homes.
Under existing rules, foreign citizens are generally blocked from purchasing established houses in Australia. Temporary residents can apply to purchase one established property for their primary residence, or if they plan to redevelop the property to add to housing stock. Jarden chief economist Carlos Cacho said Mr Dutton’s proposal to cut the permanent migration program didn’t really matter for the economy or overall migration numbers in the short-term, but said it was damaging in the long-term. “The majority of people who get permanent residency … are already in Australia About 70 per cent of permanent residency recipients are residing in Australia at the time they get that,” Mr Cacho said. Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten challenged Mr Dutton on the numbers behind his plan, labelling his speech a “lightweight presentation”. “It was more like a show bag of slogans and band-aids,” he said.
“What matters to me is what’s in the long-term interest of Aussie families doing it tough at the moment. We’ve already started reducing the number of international students coming here. “The truth of the matter is the number of international student visas in the last few months has been reduced by 35 per cent. We’re on track to halve the net overseas migration number where it was in the peak of last year.” Mr Dutton said it was a “no-brainer” that high overseas arrival numbers were pushing Australians out of the housing market. “We want the Australians who are living in tents and in the back of cars at the moment to take up the rental accommodation instead of international students who are here in huge numbers.” “It’s not that we’re against international students, but I think we’ve got to prioritise Australians getting into housing.” Tuesday’s budget showed international students would bear the brunt of the government’s own plans push down post-COVID migration, as net overseas arrivals drop to 260,000 by 2025 – half of what it was in 2022-23.
A surge of international students and temporary workers pushed net arrivals into the country to a record of 548,000 in the year to September 2023. The government has forecast that net migration will settle at 235,000 a year between 2026 and 2028. The moves follow growing community angst about population and housing pressures.
Article:
Peter Dutton has conceded only a tiny fraction of property sales in Australia are made by foreign residents, after struggling to say what the effect of his newly announced population policy would be on the housing market. The opposition leader used his budget reply speech on Thursday night to pledge a Coalition government would slash permanent migration, cutting arrivals by a quarter to 140,000 a year, and ban foreign investors and temporary residents from buying established homes for two years.
Loading He said the plan would free up 100,000 properties and help Australians by “restoring the dream of homeownership”, The Coalition’s cut to the permanent migrant intake from 185,000 to 140,000 would take the metric to its lowest level for 20 years, amid continuing labour shortages that threaten to keep inflation high. But, challenged on Friday morning about the number of overseas migrants who purchase property in Australia, Mr Dutton could not say.
Advertisement “The number of people who are foreign citizens, who are buying houses in our country is low, but nonetheless it contributes to an overall shortage of housing in our country,” he told Channel Nine. “When you combine it all together, when you combine it all together it is pretty significant.” Treasury data showed from July 2021 to June 2022 there were 4228 residential real estate purchases by foreign owners. New dwellings represented 52.1 per cent of the purchase transactions, followed by 31.7 per cent for established dwellings, totalling about 1350 homes.
Under existing rules, foreign citizens are generally blocked from purchasing established houses in Australia. Temporary residents can apply to purchase one established property for their primary residence, or if they plan to redevelop the property to add to housing stock. Jarden chief economist Carlos Cacho said Mr Dutton’s proposal to cut the permanent migration program didn’t really matter for the economy or overall migration numbers in the short-term, but said it was damaging in the long-term. “The majority of people who get permanent residency … are already in Australia About 70 per cent of permanent residency recipients are residing in Australia at the time they get that,” Mr Cacho said. Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten challenged Mr Dutton on the numbers behind his plan, labelling his speech a “lightweight presentation”. “It was more like a show bag of slogans and band-aids,” he said.
“What matters to me is what’s in the long-term interest of Aussie families doing it tough at the moment. We’ve already started reducing the number of international students coming here. “The truth of the matter is the number of international student visas in the last few months has been reduced by 35 per cent. We’re on track to halve the net overseas migration number where it was in the peak of last year.” Mr Dutton said it was a “no-brainer” that high overseas arrival numbers were pushing Australians out of the housing market. “We want the Australians who are living in tents and in the back of cars at the moment to take up the rental accommodation instead of international students who are here in huge numbers.” “It’s not that we’re against international students, but I think we’ve got to prioritise Australians getting into housing.” Tuesday’s budget showed international students would bear the brunt of the government’s own plans push down post-COVID migration, as net overseas arrivals drop to 260,000 by 2025 – half of what it was in 2022-23.
A surge of international students and temporary workers pushed net arrivals into the country to a record of 548,000 in the year to September 2023. The government has forecast that net migration will settle at 235,000 a year between 2026 and 2028. The moves follow growing community angst about population and housing pressures.