Businesman Mark Bouris has hit out at moves by Treasurer Joe Hockey to crack down on foreign residents buying Australian property as a “diversion” and “very political”, and said most lending to Chinese buyers was to local residents.
Mr Bouris, the founder and chairman of one of Australia’s fastest growing mortgage lenders, Yellow Brick Road, said there was a perception that borrowers and buyers with Chinese surnames were foreign residents but that was “nonsense”.
“My sense is that it is mostly Australian residents with Chinese surnames buying Australian properties and they are not all being bought in Chatswood or Hurstville (Sydney suburbs with large Chinese-heritage populations). They are being bought across the board.”
Mr Hockey said that China’s 15th richest businessman, Xu Jiayin, would have just 90 days to sell the Sydney harbourside mansion Villa del Mare because it was bought last year in breach of foreign investment rules that ban foreign residents buying existing properties.
The move came amid widespread perceptions that foreign investors were flouting local rules and taking advantage of a falling currency to push housing prices out of reach of local buyers.
But Mr Bouris said the forced sale was “politics at its best” and questioned why the rules had not been enforced up until now.