Since November, I have been trying to get a very simple answer out of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO): How many potential foreign buyers are they detecting?
The ATO runs a data matching program that checks the details of more than 2.4 million sellers and buyers to detect if they might be foreign.
The ATO claims only 1% of purchases are foreign, but they won’t tell me how many of those 2.4 million matches they get are flagged as potentially foreign. Watch as they again refuse to tell me how many foreigners they identify in the 2.4 million records.
They claim to have manually checked over 230,000 records every year that can’t be automatically matched to confirm whether they are Australian. With other evidence like the NAB property survey indicating up to 11% of new housing stock is purchased by foreigners, I believe the ATO figures are completely understating the level of foreign buying in the country.
Transcript
Senator ROBERTS: Thank you for appearing again tonight, and congratulations to you, Mr Heferen. I don’t think we’ve seen you since your appointment. My first question is about foreign buyers of real estate. Radio 2GB reported in April that foreign buyers accounted for 11 per cent of newly built homes in the final quarter of last year. This is a disaster for Australian homebuyers. Can you please provide that data for each quarter over the previous 12 months—the proportion of newly built homes bought by foreigners?
Mr Thompson: I think the 2GB article would have been using the National Australia Bank—
Senator ROBERTS: That’s my understanding.
Mr Thompson: As I think I’ve talked about at the committee before, there are a number of differences between the National Australia Bank survey and our data. So the National Australia Bank’s data is from a survey,
so it asks real estate and other real estate professionals to estimate. I think the exact question in that survey is about overseas buyers. Our numbers are coming from state and territory land title offices, which are matched
against Home Affairs data and Australia Electoral Commission data. There is a very significant gap between the numbers that appear in that survey and the numbers that we get. Our numbers are based on the definition of a foreigner under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act. I think last week we released the 2022-23 numbers, which would put the estimate at around one per cent.
Senator ROBERTS: Moving onto the first home super saver scheme, I’m quoting from the eligibility requirements in guidance note 2018/1: There is no requirement for you to be an Australian citizen, Australian resident or an Australian resident for taxation purposes. Why are we allowing foreigners—not even residents for taxation purposes—access to this scheme, which is meant to be for getting Australians into their first home?
Mr Heferen: That would be a policy question for our colleagues at the Treasury.
Ms Brown: It is a policy question for Treasury, but the appropriate group for it to be directed to is markets group. That is administered by our Retirement, Advice and Investment Division in markets group. We can take it on notice and have them provide a reply.
Senator ROBERTS: I want to come back to foreign ownership again. I refer to table 3 of the answer to question on notice SBE106 from the November estimates. Through the Department of Home Affairs visa data-
matching program, how many of the real property transfer report entities records that are automatically matched to ATO records are foreign?
Mr Thompson: As we’ve answered previously, we’re not able to—the question was, ‘How many do we automatically match?’ and ‘How many do we have to go away and do additional things to match?’
Senator ROBERTS: I’m coming to that.
Mr Thompson: If you think about it coming through the system: if it’s an exact match, that’s all automated. There would be a range of circumstances where we don’t get an automatic match. It could be that the date of
birth’s the wrong way. It could be a maiden name. In those circumstances, we have additional processes to match. We work down through every record. In the automatic matches, there will be some foreigners. In the ones we can’t automatically match, there will be some foreigners.
Senator ROBERTS: What percentage?
Mr Thompson: At that point—
Senator ROBERTS: You can’t tell us?
Mr Thompson: The numbers in that answer to the question on notice were addressing how many we automatically match versus how many we perform additional—
Senator ROBERTS: Correct. How many that were matched were foreigners?
Mr Thompson: If the question is about the compliance results that we get, they’re published—
Senator ROBERTS: My question is: what percentage of buyers are foreigners?
Mr Thompson: One per cent.
Senator ROBERTS: Could you provide to me on notice the numbers of foreign buyers for the last five years.
Mr Thompson: We publish that. I’ve got the latest public—
Senator ROBERTS: Okay, if you could take it on notice for the last five years.
Mr Thompson: I’ll take it on notice.
Senator ROBERTS: From table 4, immediately below that from the same question on notice from November estimates, how many of the entity records that were not able to be automatically matched to ATO records remain unverified or unresolved?
Mr Thompson: None.
Senator ROBERTS: How many unmatched records from the data-matching program remain unresolved from 2018 to date?
Mr Thompson: I think that’s the same question.
Senator ROBERTS: I want to go right back to 2018.
Mr Thompson: I’ll take that one on notice.
Senator ROBERTS: How many residential properties in Australia are owned by foreigners today?
Mr Thompson: I think that is the question around the register.
Senator ROBERTS: I just want to know how many foreigners own real estate. We’ve got a housing crisis. We’ve got people in Brisbane and all up and down the east coast of Queensland in major provincial cities sleeping under bridges and in cars, taking families home.
Senator Gallagher: Yes, but I think it’s very simplistic to say that that housing shortage is a result of foreign investment in residential housing. We’ve had a number of hearings where you’ve been told how relatively low that level is in comparison to non-foreign owned.
Senator ROBERTS: I’d like the exact numbers.
Senator Gallagher: And we’ll provide that number to you, but the link that you are saying—that foreign ownership of properties equals some of what you’ve been talking about and is a real issue in Brisbane—is not
right. The issue is supply. We’ve got to build more houses for people, not blame foreigners for it.
Senator ROBERTS: I’ve never said it’s entirely due to foreigners, but that is one—
Senator Gallagher: We need to make sure that the rules are tight, that there are restrictions in place, which there are, so that that arrangement works properly. But it’s not fair to say that the housing crisis is because we’ve got some small foreign-owned investments.
Senator ROBERTS: I didn’t say that. I said that’s one contributing factor.
CHAIR: I’ll just do some committee administration here. I’ll table three documents—the three articles referenced by Senator O’Neill earlier. The committee has agreed to a time management plan to conclude
questions, so last question, Senator Roberts.
Senator ROBERTS: I’d like to make the point that the witnesses have provided answers so late, in the past, that they’ve been distributed at 8 pm on the day before they appear in Senate estimates, 100 days after the last
hearing, and failing to raise any public interest immunity claims on answers they don’t give. That’s a clear frustration of the committee’s work.
Senator Gallagher: We will try and do better, Senator Roberts. We have had a long discussion about the number of questions on notice which are coming in and having to be managed by departments, but I agree: it’s an important accountability measure, and departments should work to meet the timeframes.
Senator ROBERTS: When it’s 100 days, it’s way late, and then it suddenly comes in at 8 pm on the night before.
Senator Gallagher: Yes. I understand your frustration.
Daily Telegraph Article: Foreigners buying homes at twice the rate claimed in official figures, according to real estate agents and state tax data
With the techmology available today there is little doubt that the number of foreign buyers purchasing houses is deliberately withheld. Is this to help mask the the foreign buyers purchases of our other assets.?
It simple enough to ensure every transacted sale is noted as foreign or not. Whether it be by an Australian entity owned by foreigner or not. If this – then that.
With the technology available today there is little doubt that the number of foreign buyers purchasing houses is deliberately withheld. Is this to help mask the the foreign buyers purchases of our other assets.?
It simple enough to ensure every transacted sale is noted as foreign or not. Whether it be by an Australian entity owned by foreigner or not. If this – then that.
Of course the ATO are keeping silent on this as it’s part of labor’s undermining plan and 1 of many others underway to destroy our lifestyle . We , Australia are far away from other countries so problems must be bought / imported and immigrated here . The rug is being pulled out from under our feet yet we’re either too stupid or sleeping to notice .
Send several house for sale in the area i live and the buyers all end up being some type foreign country person yet. I’m rentingn500+ at least half my income a week and very unlikely able to get a homeloan so I can a place I call home
Yes, important information that must be released – Australian’s must own homes and then we can look at who else can be included
I sm aware of an overseas student who now owns several houses in Australia, bought with money sent by her father from overseas. He visits her and they go house shopping.
My friend in Mackay said his neighbours house was purchased above asking price by soloman islanders using Chinese money. He said they were purchasing every house they could before moving to Townsville next month and doing same.