Chinese buyer defaults on Rose Bay prestige offering amid SIV surge
A home sales contract to an offshore Chinese buyer is no guarantee of yielding a settlement.
A post-Christmas $6.15 million sale to offshore Chinese buyers of a prestige Rose Bay mansion has failed to proceed.
Property Observer gathers the buyers defaulted on their intended acquisition of 1 Cecil Road, with the buyers attributing the changed circumstance to a failure to secure Chinese government approval in the transfer of the required funds.
The five bedroom Rose Bay mansion on a lucky 1,088 square metre block was relisted for auction this week, selling shortly after it was passed in at $5.65 million.
The LJ Hooker Doube Bay agent Alain Waitsman secured a slightly higher undisclosed price in post-auction negotiations after its auction at Cooley Auctions.
The recent sale collapse comes at a time when vendor interest is strong in certain suburbs buoyed by the Significant Investor Visa (SIV) scheme, the so-called golden ticket which gives residency to wealthy foreign nationals who invest $5 million in government bonds or eligible managed funds.
The Australian Financial Review noted recently the slow-starting scheme will hit $1 billion this month with a further $2.6 billion worth of applications lodged.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) issued a further 30 visas during March.
It took the total number of visas issued since late 2012 to 174, a $870 million tally. The appeal of the SIV program for Australian property vendors is that they visa recipients inevitably buy a home.
Wealthy Chinese nationals have made up 85% of visas granted. The figures show Sydney has been trumped by Melbourne as the investment location destination of successful applicants with 47% in Victoria and 37% in NSW.
The offshore Chinese applications make up 91% of the 772 applications that have been lodged to date.
The scheme requires that a minimum of $1.5 million of the required $5 million be invested in NSW Waratah Bonds was boosted by an expansion of the qualifying managed fund investments late last year to include derivates, annuities, mortgages and interests in unregulated managed funds.
The Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Limited (AVCAL) recently sought an even broader program in its submission to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection review into the SIV program with the suggestion offshore investors be allowed to allocate capital to venture capital and private equity opportunities.