The Federal Government is hoping a freeze on foreign buyers will help ease Australia’s housing crisis.
It has announced a ban on overseas buyers of existing Australian homes for two years and will review the effectiveness of the scheme after that.
It will come into effect from April 1, 2025, and stop foreign persons including temporary residents buying established homes in Australia.
But industry analysts say the move will have very little impact on the market.
International real estate technology group Juwai IQI says only about 1600 transactions a year will be impacted.
Managing director Daniel Ho says of the roughly 520,000 home sales per year in Australia, fewer than 5,000 go to foreign buyers, and only about a third of those are existing homes.
That equates to about 1% of all transactions.
Temporary residents will still be able to buy new properties in Australia.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government is also cracking down on land banking by foreign investors to free up land to build more homes more quickly.