Foreign investment breach sees Brighton trophy sold

Chinese investors have been forced to sell a multimillion-dollar trophy home in Brighton after being caught breaching foreign investment rules.

The owners of 73 Roslyn St, a five-bedroom mansion with a court and pool, were forced to put their $5.6 million home up for February auction. No resale price has yet emerged.

The Herald Sun reported the ATO has focused on a group of migration agents in Sydney and Melbourne as it widens enforcement activities.

From December last year, foreign owners who buy Australian real estate outside the rules will now lose their windfall profits when they are forced to sell — and will be hit with a penalty of 10 per cent of the purchase price.

But these vendors got to keep the estimated $900,000 profit they made on the sale — and avoided a $560,000 fine.

Revenue and Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer confirmed a Brighton home was one of 30 the Government had so far ordered to be sold after an investigation found the owners had breached foreign investment rules.

She said the value of the property ordered to be sold had so far reached $78 million.

The Brighton property was owned by a Mt Waverley-based company, Jin Ding International Investments Pty Ltd, which was incorporated in December 2012.

The officeholders and beneficiaries are named as Beijing-born Bai Jingwei, Zhang Jie and Zhu Yuhuan.

The house was sold under orders from the ATO and FIRB in February having been bought for $5.6 million several year's earlier.