Government Approval buying a house?

[piersabc]

Hi All

Can anyone help us, we are on a 495 SIR Visa and have read that we need to get approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board before we can get a house. It also suggests that you are most likely to gain aproval if you buy a new home or plot of land to build on.

Does anyone know if you can get approval on a pre owned house and is it difficult?

Thanks:unsure:

[soggy]

[quote=piersabc;15069]Hi All

Can anyone help us, we are on a 495 SIR Visa and have read that we need to get approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board before we can get a house. It also suggests that you are most likely to gain aproval if you buy a new home or plot of land to build on.

Does anyone know if you can get approval on a pre owned house and is it difficult?

Thanks:unsure:[/quot
Hi,
you can get approval to buy a pre owned house, as long as it is for your main residence there should be no problem, just make sure you put FIRB approval as a condition when you make an offer on a house, the estate agent will do the paperwork for you.

Simon

[dglamoore]

Have friends on an SIR495 that bought their property no problem. As Simon says just put the FIRB approval in your contract as a condition of sale.

More info here - http://www.firb.gov.au/content/real_estate.asp

Lisa:jiggy:

[richjop]

If you are buying a house an the price is offers over then FIRB approval must be stated as part of the offer and the conveyancer will sort it all out for you. The process can take up to 30 days, our sellers said we had to settle within 7 days of FIRB approval being granted so bear this in mind because if may come through earlier than the 30 days. Buying at an auction-we were told that 495 Visa holders needed to get pre-approval before bidding at an auction and this means registering you interest about 2 weeks prior to the auction, each approval costs money so probably wise to only register for those that you are going to bid on-Lew Toop from Toop and Toop said that people were not keen on FIRB buyers at auction so we went down the offers over route-seemed simpler. The one stipulation is that if you sell within 2 years you must sell to an Australian resident. New homes, I would ask if its part of the package offered. Any doubts, any agent should be able to tell you,