Where Foreign Investors Are Buying
Australian-based buyers may be put off by increasing taxes put on property investment in Victoria, but it hasn’t been enough to dissuade foreign investors.
New data shows foreign investors are buying more properties in Victoria than in any other state.
Data from the Australian Taxation Office’s first annual Register of Foreign Ownership report shows that foreign investors spent $2.25 billion on new homes and land in Australia in FY2024.
The majority of purchases were made by buyers from China, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong.
In terms of new dwellings, 1070 were purchased by foreign investors in Victoria, 442 in New South Wales, 258 in Queensland and 116 in the ACT. Western Australia only had 78 new dwelling sales to foreign investors, South Australia had 54 and Tasmania, 9, with just one bought in the Northern Territory.
Land sales were also highest in Victoria (1092 lots), followed by Queensland (460) and South Australia (222).
University of Adelaide, senior housing policy researcher, Sha Liu, says foreign buyers only accounted for about 1% of total housing transactions in FY2024 compared to about 5% in FY2016.
The Federal government has introduced new regulations in recent years, which make it more expensive for foreign investors to buy property in Australia.
