Improving housing affordability begins at home

To turn away these foreign wealth transfers would only serve to compound our domestic policy failures in relation to housing.

It is government policy to encourage temporary residents to come to Australia to study and work. If these temporary residents are prevented from buying new dwellings, they will enter the private rental market and increase competition in that market.

Australia already has a more restrictive policy on foreign investment in residential and other real estate than comparable economies such as the United States and the United Kingdom. 

The fact that the existing controls on foreign investment are not effectively enforced only serves to demonstrate that our politicians have enacted impractical and unworkable laws and regulations that are too costly to properly enforce.

Australia needs to become more open to foreign investment, not less, but must also free up the supply of new housing to contain upward pressure on prices.