Australian Agricultural Land in Foreign Ownership.
The percentage of Agricultural Land in Foreign Ownership in Australia varies between 4.1% (NSW/ACT) and as high as 30.1% (NT), according to FIRB information.
The ownership percentages for each of the States and Territories at Jun 2016 was:
30.1% of Northern Territory in 71 properties
21.8% of Tasmania in 911 properties
15.6% of South Australia in 614 properties
13.0% of Queensland in 1,345 properties
10.9% of Western Australia in 917 properties
5.1% of Victoria in 1,558 properties
4.1% of New South Wales and ACT in 1,798 properties
This DOES NOT include land that is:
Land that is under One Hectare in size (10,000 square metres)
Land that is used or proposed for Mining
Top Ten Foreign Ownership Countries.
7.15% United Kingdom 27,504,000 Hectares
2.01% United States 7,727,000 Hectares
0.77% Netherlands 2,976,000 Hectares
0.48% Singapore 1,862,000 Hectares
0.38% China 1,463,000 Hectares
0.29% Philippines 1,119,000 Hectares
0.28% Switzerland 1,069,000 Hectares
0.25% Jersey 944,000 Hectares
0.20% Indonesia 774,000 Hectares
0.18% Japan 685,000 Hectare
Total 46,123,000 Hectare
Source: Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land 30 June 2016 (This is a PDF file)
Chinese Ownership of Land in Australia.
The figures above show that China has 1,463,000 Hectares of the total 54,127,000 hectares, or 0.38% of the total Australian registerable AGRICULTURAL Land.
A 2013 KPMG/Sydney Uni report says that Chinese investors own less than 1 per cent of Australian agricultural land, and that this represents just 3 per cent of the total Chinese investment in Australia.
What is the other 97% of total Chinese investment in Australia made up of?
A 2015 report stated that “80% of our mining resources are foreign owned. In agriculture, it’s just 12%”.
That report got the agriculture percentage right, how accurate is the mining percentage ?
Concern over Foreign Ownership.
An ABC Compass survey found that 80 per cent of respondents were concerned about the size of foreign land ownership in Australia.
The question certainly needs to be addressed, to satisfy the concerns that the majority have.
Foreign Ownership of Residential land in Australia.
That is another question entirely, but it seems that there are no restrictions on vacant land, new properties, or established dwellings for redevelopment that foreign investors can receive approval to buy.