Foreign property buys face Treasury probe: report

The Australian Treasury is investigating cases of foreigners buying houses or apartments second-hand, in potential breach of foreign ownership laws, according to The Australian Financial Review.

Those laws were designed with the intention of preventing foreign buying from impacting locals’ property purchasing power.

But 33 cases of second-hand buying, including a small number of “very high-value established purchases”, are under inquiry, Treasury officials told the paper.

Meanwhile, up to 340 purchase applications by foreign buyers were withdrawn in the 2013 financial year on advice they were in breach of the law, the AFR reports.