Andrew Gee (Calare, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That:

(1) the House notes:

(a) the housing affordability crisis is having a devastating impact on many Australians, particularly first home buyers and young families;

(b) urgent action is required to prevent the great Australian dream of home ownership from slipping away from many Australians;

(c) the National Australia Bank Residential Property survey for fourth quarter 2023 found that the market share of foreign buyers in new Australian housing markets grew for the fifth straight quarter to a six and a half year high of 11 per cent, and in New South Wales foreign buyers had a 15 per cent market share; and

(d) a two-year prohibition on the foreign purchase of residential property in Australia would ensure that the interests of foreign property speculators are not being prioritised over the interests of Australian first home buyers and young families; and

(2) Private Members' business order of the day No. 27, relating to the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Foreign Entities Bill 2024, be called on immediately and be given priority over all other business for final determination of the House.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Calare moving the following motion immediately:

That:

(1) the House notes:

(a) the housing affordability crisis is having a devastating impact on many Australians, particularly first home buyers and young families;

(b) urgent action is required to prevent the great Australian dream of home ownership from slipping away from many Australians;

(c) the National Australia Bank Residential Property survey for fourth quarter 2023 found that the market share of foreign buyers in new Australian housing markets grew for the fifth straight quarter to a six and a half year high of 11 per cent, and in New South Wales foreign buyers had a 15 per cent market share; and

(d) a two-year prohibition on the foreign purchase of residential property in Australia would ensure that the interests of foreign property speculators are not being prioritised over the interests of Australian first home buyers and young families; and

(2) Private Members' business order of the day No. 27, relating to the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Foreign Entities Bill 2024, be called on immediately and be given priority over all other business for final determination of the House.

I raise this as a matter of urgency, because every single member of this House knows that Australia is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis. I have sat in this House all week and listened to speaker after speaker on both sides of the aisle acknowledging this crisis and saying that it needs to be urgently addressed. There can be no disputing it. It's to the point where there is seemingly universal acknowledgement in this House that this is the case. Go back through the Hansard of this week and you will read members' speeches about how important it is that we get first home buyers and young families into the housing market. It cannot seriously be argued by any member in this House that this is not a matter of national urgency.

The great Australian dream of home ownership used to be the birthright of every single Australian. Now it's slipping away before our eyes, and everyone in this House knows it. If we accept that there is a housing affordability crisis, the question then becomes: what are we as a parliament going to do to address this issue?

Part of the solution to the housing affordability crisis is before this House as we speak. It's my private member's bill—my first one—the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Foreign Entities Bill 2024.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a very good one.

Andrew Gee (Calare, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kennedy for his interjection. This bill represents an important part of the solution to this crisis, and it needs to be debated urgency because it can deliver immediate results and make thousands and thousands of new homes and units available to first home buyers and young families each year.

The bill proposes a two-year prohibition on the foreign purchase of homes in Australia. Boosting housing supply is going to take decades. A two-year ban on foreign property speculators buying Aussie homes would take pressure off the market straightaway. That's the aim of the bill. Noncitizens, non-permanent residents and foreign controlled companies would be included in this prohibition. It covers the purchase of residential property either directly or indirectly and alone or jointly. It does not apply if a non-Australian is purchasing property jointly with a spouse or de facto partner who is an Australian citizen or permanent resident.

The bill provides for penalties for breaching the prohibition of up to $250,000. This in itself is a substantial penalty. However, for wealthy offending foreign corporations, this may not be a large enough fine. Under the Crimes Act 1914, a penalty of five times this amount may be imposed upon an offending foreign corporate entity, which equates to $1.25 million. Importantly, the bill also provides for the Federal Court of Australia to order the disposal of foreign-held residential property that contravenes the prohibition in this bill.

Debating this bill is urgent because things are moving quickly in the property market. The latest available data we have on foreign investment in residential real estate covers the 12 months to June 2022. This period included the COVID-19 pandemic global lockdowns, which undoubtedly would have affected the number of homes bought by non-Australians, given that they couldn't travel here. In the years since June 2022, regularity has returned to the housing market, and we know the numbers are higher. In any case, the data reveals a real problem that this bill aims to help solve.

In the year to June 2022, 4,228 homes were bagged by foreign buyers. That's scarce housing stock that could have gone to 4,228 Australians desperate for a home to call their own and who are being crowded out of the market. More than 75 per cent of these properties sold for less than $1 million. The year before, in the 12 months to 2021, 83 per cent of the homes purchased by foreign buyers were under $1 million. This demonstrates that foreign buyers are snapping up entry-level homes. That's a shocker of a statistic for young families and first home buyers who are trying to get their start. In the five years to June 2022, almost 37,000 residential properties on our shores were snapped up by foreign buyers. That's a huge number of homes that could have been the first rung on the property ladder for Aussies.

But, since those figures were published, the activities of foreign property speculators have been ramping up big time. The National Australia Bank's recently released residential property survey found that the market share of foreign buyers in new Australian housing markets in October to December 2023 grew for the fifth straight quarter to a 6½-year high of 11 per cent. In New South Wales, foreign buyers had a 15 per cent market share in the fourth quarter and in Western Australia it was 14.2 per cent. The NAB says that this points to a near fivefold increase in market share from the COVID pandemic low of mid-2021. The NAB states that international agents are reporting an increase in inquiries of over 400 per cent. The NAB also went on to find that dwelling prices rose by 9.3 per cent across capital cities in 2023. That's a very significant increase. Action must be taken immediately.

This bill is not about turning our backs on the wider world; rather it's about making thousands more homes available to hardworking Australians. It's about helping Australian homebuyers, and especially first home buyers, finally get a foothold on the residential property ladder. It's about helping them get their shot at the great Australian dream. The measures outlined in this bill can be an important part of the solution to the housing affordability crisis, along with other policies. They can make a positive contribution and have a positive impact straightaway. It's simple: by pausing foreign buyers from the residential property market for two years, more housing would be available for Australians. It's urgent that we have this debate because, as I have said, this is a measure that can make a real difference quickly. It's much faster to implement this bill than to build tens of thousands of new homes to make up for those bought by foreign property investors. The immediate impact that this bill can have demonstrates why it is so important to bring it on for debate.

Constituents of the Calare electorate are frequently contacting me to indicate just how difficult it is to find an affordable place to purchase or rent in our area. The fact is, when demand increases in the city, speculators look to park their wealth in properties located in regional centres and thriving towns, causing regional house and rental prices to skyrocket. Allowing foreign buyers to snap up Aussie homes adds unnecessary heat to the housing market that so many are finding themselves locked out of. It's a vicious cycle. In these difficult economic times, we need to be putting the interests of Australians ahead of wealthy foreign property speculators. The bill would bring the goal of homeownership into reach for thousands more Australians each year by banning foreign buyers from snapping up homes on our shores. It's been modelled upon a similar piece of legislation that was passed into law by the Trudeau government in Canada. This month, Canada announced it would be extending its ban on foreign home purchases in Canada for an extra two years to 2027. They are not our only Commonwealth cousins to do so. New Zealand has a similar measure, as does Singapore.

It's not enough to just believe in the great Australian dream. It's not enough just to talk about that dream in this House. It's our role as members of parliament to empower Aussies to achieve it. I urge all members of this House to support this motion and bring this bill on for debate, on the double.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hereby formally second the motion. Yesterday, I highlighted affordability, along with my colleague from Tasmania. I would have heard this word maybe a thousand times so far this year in this parliament. I defy anyone to point out a single action taken, or proposed, by the opposition that would deal with affordability.

What the federal government is proposing will increase demand. I would draw their attention to a paper put out by Malcolm Turnbull, no less, and an Oxford don—who happened to be an Australian and was a professor at Oxford. They said that governments continuously solve the housing problem by increasing demand, like, 'We'll give you a five per cent interest rate,' or, 'We'll give you a $10,000 encouragement fee to get your own home.' All this increases demand but does nothing whatsoever to increase supply. At least here, in the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Foreign Entities Bill 2024, we are curtailing the demand very, very significantly. The honourable member for Calare has outlined the degree of penetration into the Australian housing market by foreign investors. A foreign investor wants to park his money somewhere. I've seen numerous examples of that in North Queensland—investments that couldn't possibly ever make money but very safe investments. We've only got so many house builders. We've only got the provision of so many house-building supplies in this country. If they're being mopped up by foreigners to build houses that they really don't want anyone to live in, then, of course, you're dramatically exacerbating the housing market. It's not as if prohibition is some extreme measure. Our cousins in Canada have already done it. In a country where the price of a house now in Brisbane is over $120,000, the price of a house in Sydney is over $1.2 million and the price of a house in Melbourne is over $1 million, how can any person with the average take-home pay of near enough to $100,000—he pays $25,000 of that in tax; he's got a take-home pay of $75,000—buy a house for a million dollars? I don't know. Of course, they're not.

One of the very unpleasant outcomes of this is that young couples are saying, 'Well, we're just going to wait until we've got enough money to get a house and settle down properly.' They don't ever get the money to buy a house, so they don't have any children, so now we are a vanishing race. When the figures come out this year, you'll find that, when 20 Australians die, they're replaced by 16 people. That's a great achievement by the Liberal Party and the Labor Party! You have now imposed upon us that we're a vanishing race of people. You need a house to settle down.

One of my great ambitions in life was to have a couple of acres surrounding my house, where we could toss a football around and play a bit of rugby league in the backyard, even if it was only touch football. There would be a bit of space to grow some trees. We didn't have a single tree on our acreage. Now there are over a thousand native trees on our acreage. We've got a beautiful quarter acre. When all the family are home, we play touch football and have a lot of fun. It's very, very civilised. The beautiful thing about this country is that it's an empty country. Go 150 kilometres west of Sydney, and you can fire a machine gun or drop atomic bombs all the way across to the Indian Ocean and not kill anyone, because there's no-one living there. That's the wonderful thing about Australia.

Our party in Queensland—if they get the balance of power this year—will lift the speed limits to 125 kilometres per hour on divided, safe highways, and that will enable people to live further out on giant spoke roads. What the member of parliament is doing, new as he is to this place, is a wonderful thing for his country. I salute him and back him very, very strongly in trying to help Australians to get their own homes— (Time expired)

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whilst the government is opposing the suspension of standing orders from the member for Calare, I do appreciate his concerns and understand the issue he is seeking to address here. Although, I don't believe that this proposal will address the housing challenges confronting Australia, and many may actually make them worse.

While investment in building new houses is welcome, foreign ownership of existing houses is generally prohibited, as I'm sure the member appreciates. This boosts the nation's housing stock and assists in the long run whilst ensuring we have enough homes to house Australians. Only in very limited circumstances are foreigners allowed to purchase an existing home. We do, however, want to ensure that foreign investment in housing is in the national interest, which is why we recently introduced a bill in this place to raise the fees on those seeking to purchase an existing home and to increase the maximum fine for those that do not sell or rent out their property when they leave Australia or when they leave the property vacant. Funds raised from these fees and fines will support greater monitoring by the Australian Taxation Office to ensure greater compliance with this measure and our rules and to ensure any investment is in the national interest. Indeed, the changes in our bill do three things. The bill triples the foreign investment fees for the purchase of established homes, doubles vacancy fees for all foreigner owned dwellings purchased since 9 May 2017 and enhances the ATO's compliance regime to ensure foreign investors comply with the rules, including the selling of their residence when required.

Our government does take seriously the task of helping more Australians into home ownership. Last night in this place, we were able to take another step forward on that with the passage of our Help to Buy legislation, which will help people into home ownership, particularly low- and middle-income Australians—and I thank the member for Calare for his support for that. Once passed by the parliament, the scheme will support 40,000 low- and middle-income Australians to access home ownership with smaller mortgages and lower deposits. As I have said, we did design this scheme carefully to ensure that it does support the low- and middle-income households while having a minimal impact.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, you're increasing the demand without increasing the supply.

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll get to supply in a minute, Member. This is important new support, so it's deeply disappointing that some in this place are using the bill as an opportunity to grandstand, frankly. They should be helping Australians and not doing that.

Our government does have a mandate to deliver Help to Buy, a critical new support, and we know it will be life-changing for the tens of thousands of Australians that are able to access it. It will join the improved and expanded Home Guarantee Scheme to support Australians into homeownership. A key Labor election commitment, the Help to Buy scheme and expanded Home Guarantee Scheme help eligible homebuyers secure finance through government support.

The Home Guarantee Scheme has now assisted more than 100,000 Australians into a home since our government was elected. In fact, almost one in three first home buyers in the last year were supported by the scheme—a significant increase on the last year under the former Liberal government. The Home Guarantee Scheme, of course, now comprises the First Home Guarantee, the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee and the Family Home Guarantee. The Albanese government delivered on its commitment to introduce the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee three months ahead of schedule, in October 2022, and has now assisted more than 15,000 people in regional Australia into homeownership.

We've also, of course, expanded the Home Guarantee Scheme to help more Australians. On 1 July last year, we opened it up to joint applicants, family and friends, not just single and married or de facto applicants. We also, with the Family Home Guarantee, importantly, expanded it from single, natural or adoptive parents with dependants to eligible borrowers who are single legal guardians of children, such as aunts, uncles and grandparents.

The Help to Buy scheme and Home Guarantee Scheme are critical parts of the government's broad, ambitious housing agenda, but they're only parts of it. Since coming to office, we have now committed an additional $25 billion in new investments in housing over the next decade. We're working with states and territories to help them meet their ambitious national target of 1.2 million well-located homes through our $3 billion new homes bonus and our $500 million Housing Support Program. We're also, of course, delivering the single biggest investment in social and affordable housing in more than a decade with the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, now established and generating returns. In January we opened the first round of funding for new projects from the Housing Australia Future Fund as we began to deliver on the commitment of the 30,000 new social and affordable homes in the fund's first five years. We've also got our National Housing Accord, which includes the 10,000 affordable homes that will be matched by states and territories with an additional 10,000 affordable homes. For our share of that we now have applications open together with our Housing Australia Future Fund.

We of course have paid the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator to the states and territories for new social homes. Some of those are underway now, and they will deliver around 4,000 new social homes across the country. We unlocked $575 million from the National Housing Infrastructure Facility for social and affordable housing and we're now adding a further $1 billion to build more social housing rentals as part of that.

In the last budget, we also facilitated an additional $2 billion in financing for the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator, administered by Housing Australia, to provide cheaper long-term loans to support new affordable rental homes. To date, Housing Australia has supported 4,937 new homes since our government came to office. We've also provided the states and territories with an additional $1.7 billion through the one-year extension of the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement. We're continuing to work with the states and territories and stakeholders on the National Housing and Homelessness Plan, a shared national vision for tackling the country's housing challenges, while we progress a new housing and homelessness agreement with the states and the territories. Together, these represent the most significant housing reforms in a generation, after a decade of very little action from the former government.

The commitments highlight our government's understanding that there's no single solution to our nation's housing challenges. It's much more complex than that. We have to pull every lever we have available to us to achieve real change, and that's exactly what we're doing. That's why the Help to Buy legislation is so critical. That's why thousands of Australians who have been locked out of homeownership are calling on us to do more. Here's what I've heard from some of the people around the country about Help to Buy. A couple in Brisbane in their mid-60s told me they have sufficient funds to enter into a shared equity arrangement for a house but wouldn't be able to buy one in their own right. For them, Help to Buy would mean security and not remaining, in their words, 'at the mercy of the rental market for the rest of our lives'.

An ACT resident who doesn't earn a huge wage and is studying and working full time told me he and his partner were looking to become homeowners. They'd moved to Canberra from rural New South Wales and saved hard to get where they were. For them, Help to Buy would mean they could finally afford a property. A Sydney resident expressed to me the difficulties of buying a home in the city but told me Help to Buy is 'a breath of fresh air that gives first home buyers some hope'. These people want real change. They want assistance to get into homeownership.

Our government is working right across the housing spectrum, with homelessness, with more sociable and affordable rental homes, with market homes and with homeownership for more people. We want to add to supply, which is why we're working with our colleagues in the states and territories to get more homes on the ground as quickly as we possibly can. The answer in Australia is more homes. We currently have fewer homes than the OECD average. We need to get more homes and we need to better utilise existing homes. I absolutely agree with the member for Calare on that, but I don't think what he's proposing is the way to go about it. What we want to do is use the fees from foreign investors investing into new property in Australia and create opportunities for more Australians.

Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to back the suspension of standing orders. This is an urgent issue. Housing availability comes up every time I have a community event. As the minister said, every lever needs to be on the table, long term and short term, and this is one of those levers. A temporary ban on the foreign purchase of residential property is one lever. It won't solve the whole piece, but it is part of the toolkit. I was initially concerned about this because it can come across as being xenophobic. I'm not against immigration. This is a short-term response to a crisis that we have at the moment.

I'd make two points. Firstly, we're not adding to supply by allowing foreign investors to build new homes, because they are competing with Australians who want to build homes and can't get access to the land, the tradies and the materials. Secondly, we debated the Help to Buy legislation. That will benefit 10,000 people, but it may add fuel to the fire and add to demand. This relates to 4,000 houses a year, based on last year, but it does potentially reduce demand. Surely it is worth debating this urgently.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allocated for this debate has expired.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion moved by the honourable member for Calare be agreed to.