McMansions and Foreign Nationals.

Conditions apply due the requirement that foreign investment should increase the supply of new housing.

Foreign nationals must obtain prior approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board(FIRB) to buy an existing home, flat or unit that has previously been occupied.

Exceptions - if a temporary resident for more than 12 months, or a foreign company buying a home for senior executives who will be living in Australia for more than 12 months.

Foreigners can usually get approval to buy vacant land as long as they start continuous construction within 12 months and can normally get approval to buy existing residences for redevelopment as long as this will increase the supply of housing(such as two or more dwellings on the block).

Note : it is this condition that is most oftenflaunted by buying up existing homes to demolish and building only one dwelling on the block, which does nothing toward increasing the housing stock.

However, foreigners can buy units, townhouses and house&land packages in a new developments provided these have never been occupied or sold and no more than 50% of new developments are sold to foreign investors.

Over the last 7 or 8 years the FIRB has done very little to police these requirements and foreign nationals have been buying up quality homes in desirable areas close to good schools, obtaining a permit to demolish through a private Building Surveyor, clearing the block of all vegetation and canopy tress, then building a large fake “Georgian” or “French Provincial”McMansion boundary to boundary with just a few ornamentals in the small front garden.

This has resulted in loss of tree canopy, loss of permeable land and open space and changing the character of the residential areas in Boroondara which is concerning the existing residents.

We understand that enforcement of the investment requirements will now been given to the Australian Tax Office which has the investigation capacity to enforce the law ( to commence later this year when you may be able to report any suspected illegal foreign investment by email on the hotline1800 061 187).

BRAG.

More on the next page………………Building permits & private building surveyors.

Building Permits and Private Building Surveyors

Since 2009 building permits can be issued by either Council or a registered Building Surveyor who is independent and not associated with or controlled by Councils.

The Victorian Building Authority (VPB) is the peak statutory authority to investigate breaches of the Building Act but the Building Practitioners Board (BPB) administers the registration of the Building Surveyors and is supposed to monitor their ability to practice and conduct while Councils are responsible for administering and enforcing parts of the Act and Building Regulations.

This has lead to all sorts of problems and there has been much criticism of the lack of support to owners who experience issues with their building contractors. The whole system depends upon trust and according to a report in The Age back in 2011, this trust is neither guided or affirmed by reliable data on the performance of these private Building Surveyors. We have seen no evidence that this situation has changed in the last 4 years.

It is clear that little is done to monitor whether the surveyors do their jobs properly either then or now. Collusion between the surveyors and the builders is common.

In the last few years foreign investors have rorted the system by engaging private building surveyors to issue permits to demolish perfectly good homes

to build their overlarge McMansions and skirting around the building regulations to get what they want to the disadvantage of existing resident neighbours.

The investors have taken advantage of the lack of policing of foreign investment requirements that existing homes cannot be purchased unless they are demolished to build two or more on the block. The residents of Balwyn, Kew and other areas of Boroondara have seen far too many of these fake “Georgians’’ and ”French Provincials” dominating their neighbourhoods despite the Neighbourhood Character requirements of the new residential zones.

The neighbourhood character of Boroondara’s streetscapes is fast changing and many residents are not happy at the changes. Unfortunately, our council has little or no power to change this situation and neither the VBA or the BPB seem to be interested.

BRAG

Authorized by the Boroondara Residents’ Action Group (BRAG). Registered under

the Assciations Inc Act No. A0054624J. P O Box 1034 Camberwell 3124

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