Perth home market booms, Sydney bottoms

From AFR.COM - for those interested in the Australian Property Market.

[broken link removed]s

Moderator note: please in full. I've replaced the reproduced article with a link.

-- ClubMan

As somebody who own investment property in both Ireland and Perth, I am happy with the way the Perth market is going.

However before ye all start to jump on a plane bound for downunder, with your equity in your pocker, bear in mind you have to have at least residency status in Australia before you can purchase.

If you have a the funds, some great large blocks (sites) to be bought on the west coast, demolish existing house and subdivide.

Beer & Barbie time.

New York,

You dont have to have residence status in Australia to be an investor in the Australian property market. As a foreign investor you are not allowed to buy second-hand homes but buying new houses / appartments is allowed.

Just look in this month's Australian Property Investor magazine and there is an article profiling one typical foreign investor. In reality there are some challenges such as arranging finance (typically can only borrow 75% to 80%) and the purchases have to be cleared by the Foreign Investment Review Board (www.firb.gov.au) and this can take up to 4 weeks. But the advantages far outweigh any such obstacles. The advantages being a mature market, property laws similar to Ireland/UK, open-minded lenders, professional property managers, etc.

In fact many of the properties that are being snapped up in WA and other hotspots are actually being purchased by overseas investors. And as you are aware they are making returns of up to 20% per annum.

However, as the report shows growth is very different depending on location. So local knowledge is very useful.

Bovis.

Do you not need to be a resident, i am surprised I was convinced you did.

Anyway I agree you need to have the local knowledge on the ground, invaluable.