FIRB says ATO best placed to catch illegal property acquisitions

The Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) chairman Brian Wilson said a national register for property transactions was needed to help track buying by foreigners who are barred from buying established residential property. 

"There are about 11 million residential dwellings in Australia, and about 600,000 property transfers every year," Wilson told the Australian Securities and Investment Commission's (ASIC) annual conference.

"It is inevitable some of those properties will be exchanged contrary to the law, but our ability to first discover and then prosecute these cases is sorely limited."

It has been mooted that responsibility for managing the register will be undertaken by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

"The ATO is better set up for coordinating a big data approach than Treasury, which is a policy body," Wilson said.

Wilson said the register idea has "wide support" but will require the support of state and territory land titles offices. Property Observer has previously written on the challenge of getting all states, especially South Australia in agreement.

Queensland is the only state that currently seeks to ascertain if the buyers are foreign.

"This is not a straightforward process but I am confident this will get a place on the Council of Australian Governments agenda," Wilson said.