Buying property on 457 visa

[jo&Co]

Hi new to site could anyone tell me if you can purchase property on a 457 visa. Is there any restrictions or rules. We are have a sponser sorted out, but have not started visa process yet if everything goes to plan we will be going to north Perth. Any information would be welcome many thanks
Jo&Co

[Jules2409]

Hi Jo, welcome to the board, we're heading to Perth on a 457 too.

There defintely is restrictions on buying on a 457 visa - I believe you can buy land or a newly buil property but otherwise you have go submit an application to a mortgage review board - it is possible but I think there's a lot of hoops to jump through. I do't kow if anyoe on the site has done this and can help you more.

Also if you are PR you get $7K towards buying your first property which might be worth thinking about.

We expect to get our PR visa within 12 months of emigrating so e're just going to hang on - we will have a house to sell in thw UK anyway.

Jules

[jewels1356]

i have an email about this from frib if anyones intresed just pm me and i will send a copy as iam on a temp visa myself took ages to find it but they took about 6 weeks to ans
julie
xx

[jo&Co]

Thanks jules, We were hoping to rent for a couple of months then buy , do you only have to there for a year before you apply for PR if that is the case maybe it would be worth waiting but rent seem quite high x
Jo& Co

[Coffee]

But, as usual if you are on a 457 visa, check whether you qualify for LAFHA first. If you do, the tax benefits on rent are not to be sniffed at. However, as soon as you buy property or apply for PR you lose any LAFHA qualification!

As a ball park figure: my LAFHA net 'income' is 50% of my rent.

[Jules2409]

Originally Posted by jo&Co

Thanks jules, We were hoping to rent for a couple of months then buy , do you only have to there for a year before you apply for PR if that is the case maybe it would be worth waiting but rent seem quite high x
Jo& Co

It'll take us about a year as we already 'qualify' for PR but don't want to wait for the process to complete because we'd rather our DS started Primary 1 from the outset in Australia.

It'll all depend on how many points you have anyway - after a year working in Oz you get another 10 so even if you don;t pass the points test for PR now you might in a years time.

I'm no expert but I understand once you have been in Oz two years regardless of points you can apply for employer sponsored PR.

I suppose it depends where you are heading and how much equity you have as a deposit but for us renting looks cheap compared to buying anyway & yes there are tax advantages of a 457 but you remain tied to your sponsoring employer and the chances are you will get a better paid job once you're out there in the free market. I guess you just have to weigh it all up for your own circumstances.

Jules x

[Burbage]

For residential property you can usually buy. However you need to apply for permission as a non-resident. It is free, you just send the title to the relevent property to the relevent authority and you get permission. You will have to place it as one of your offer conditions. Also make finance a condition (but you would anyway). I ran across the problem of not being able to get insurance for borrowing more than 80% of the property value and the mortgage was rejected. No one I asked knew this would be a problem before it happened...

Looks to me that it was for the best. I decided to apply for residency before trying to get into the market again and lo and behold the prices are all shooting down. I hope my residency is approved before they all start shooting up again.

PS; You'll get first home buyers allowance of 7000 if you get residency first and in Queensland (not the OP but anyone else reading this) you don't pay stamp duty as a first home buyer on a property less than 500000$.

My dilemma right now is whether to buy a cheaper property while the prices are down, or wait for residency and a potential extra 10,000$ and hope the prices don't rise by the same amount.

[tracynben]

hi there, i would wait until you get PR. We in the same situation, You need to get permission first from the australian govt, but you may find it hard to get a mortgage. I think you need at least a 20% deposit, and they still may say no.
No one knows at the moment whats happening with the house prices either, are they goin up or down? who knows, what a mess.
Theres a report on today tonight (perth) about where/when to buy and not to buy.

tracy

[moving2melbourne]

One of our clients have just been round, they are from the Netherlands they went though all the process of choosing a house, the land they received permission from the board everything was going through perfect until they then found out they had to put 20% deposit down because they were on temp visas, this had not been mentioned to them at first and they were told they could get a mortgage up to the value of $650k, what a downer for them, their dreams were shattered.

[melly1982]

What would happen if you bought a property and your partner is a Citizen? I'm on a 457 and bf is a Citizen...