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Comment by BelenusMordred | Hacker News Reader

> foreign buyers are only able to buy newly built homes

In theory, yes, in reality the largest single residential purchase in the country was $35m and splashed all over the front page of newspapers.

It took them 5 years later to realise it was an illegal purchase by a foreigner after he had a different dispute with the tax office.

If that sale slips through what hope do you actually have for any others?

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For wealthy individuals they can basically buy their residency by operating/investing in an Australian business. After that they apply for a Permanent Residency visa.

Once they are a resident they can purchase whatever property they wish just like an Australian Citizen.

Yes but that's tangential, this person outright bought an existing property as a foreigner knowing full well he's not allowed to. Not a single agent, conveyancer or bureaucrat in the entire process ever tried to stop it from happening. The millions of people who looked at it on the front page of paper didn't think twice.

You can buy citizenship or residency anywhere and get the perks, but that has nothing to do with the point I was making here. The point is that laws are useless until they are enforced.

I agree. I was just adding that even though the laws made to appease the public were created there are still loopholes that invalidate the claim that “only new properties can be sold to foreign citizens.” It’s untrue and even if it was it still ignores the fact that the property market doesn’t distinguish old from new.

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