Australia puts the brakes on foreign buying of property to cool prices

Sydney

SOON after Australia's New South Wales state announced it was doubling the tax for foreigner home buyers earlier this month, calls started flooding in to Sydney-based real estate agent Shan Lin. "My phone never stopped, I charged my phone three times, no kidding - overseas clients, overseas agents, my channels in China," said Mr Lin, who deals mostly with Chinese-based investors. "They definitely feel the pressure. They say, 'Shan, look, I will not consider investing in Australia or investing in Sydney'."

Chinese property investors are turning their backs on Australia as a series of measures designed to cool one of the world's hottest real estate markets targets foreign buyers, raising the risk of a damaging correction in house prices.