booz...I think the heading on this thread is misleading... all the govt is intending to do now...is require non residents to register before buying property... unless the FIRB employs more staff to implement this...it will just revert to a useless register, which is not monitored, no follow up, no data matching etc how will being registered stop them from buying a house and leaving it sitting vacant.....it will not stop that practice...
articles in the age and other news today, suggest between 30% to 60% of house sales have gone to foreign residents in Melbourne but unless the buyer reveals a foreign address, which should be recorded in the titles office, it may well be they are in fact residents... surely the titles office can check their data and reveal whether they are residents or not.... it would be a simple process to retrieve that information or is that office too stupid the detail regarding the buyers address is recorded anyway... even realestate agents have that information... I say its all about incompetent govt depts....or who exactly is attempting to cover up the facts ???
