Changes to a proposed foreign buyer ban on apartments have been watered down. Photo/Richard Robinson
Recommendations have been made to the Government's proposed foreign house-buyer ban which would see large-scale overseas apartment and hotel developers and buyers exempted.
The Finance and Expenditure Select Committee has released its report on the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill, saying apartment and hotel schemes should get special treatment
because they are providing products we need.
Developers of large multi-storey apartment buildings of 20 or more units should be able apply to sell a percentage of units overseas, the committee says, and the buyers should not be forced to sell within a year, as was proposed.
Large residential developments often rely on pre-selling units to raise funds and satisfy financiers, the report noted. The units should be able to be sold to foreigners "without the need for consent to on-sell once the unit is complete," the committee said.
Similarly, if the developers of a 20-unit-plus residential schemes were foreign, they should not be forced to sell once their scheme was finished, the committee says.
