Letters to the Editor

Foreign-funded properties should revert to Australian ownership

Readers’ letters on the need for time limits on foreign ownership of build-to-rent housing; the potential of wind power; men and gendered violence; reforming negative gearing; and Australia’s most stylish leaders.

May 3, 2024 – 11.40am

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Key Points

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Guidelines for how to write a letter to the editor are here.
Please send your letter to edletters@afr.com.au

The revamp of Australia’s foreign investment rules to boost support for rental housing (“Investors back FIRB changes – with a tax tweak”) should be tied to foreign ownership reverting to Australian citizens. Otherwise, future voters will be exposed, in the words of Professor Edith Penrose, to “unlimited, unknown and uncontrollable foreign liability”.

The average investment holding period for US institutional real estate investors is 7.6 years. When I was a financial analyst working in the New York office of the Treasury department of a global firm, we received cash flow projections for competing projects for up to 30 years. However, no projected cash return after a 10-year time horizon was recognised. On two occasions I founded companies that later became publicly traded in Australia for investors who accepted a time horizon of 15 years.