Australia has forced the foreign owners of another 15 illegally bought properties to sell.
The latest round, announced by Treasurer Scott Morrison on Monday, took the total number of forced property sales to 61 since May last year with a combined value of $107 million, the government said.
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'Same problems as London': Morrison doubles down on negative gearing
High property prices in the UK show that Australia's housing affordability crisis is not related to negative gearing, Treasurer Scott Morrison told business leaders in Marylebone, in the UK.
The latest 15 properties were owned by nationals of China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Britain and Germany.
The most expensive divestment was a $5.9 million property in Rockbank, 40 kilometres west of the Melbourne CBD, owned by an Indian national and likely to be a residential site, real estate agents in the area said. Rockbank was a rural area that was converted into a new new suburb in 2015.
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Foreigners must seek approval from the government's Foreign Investment Review Board before purchasing property in Australia. Non-Australians are only allowed to buy new property, not second hand property.
With house prices on the rise and affordability worsening, the government has undertaken divestments and curbs to foreign ownership through increased stamp duty and taxes.
Sydney among most unaffordable cities
Sydney house prices have risen more than 70 per cent since the recent boom started in 2012 and is the second most unaffordable city in the world after Hong Kong, according to researcher Demographia.
Separately, Australia has cited national security issues for rejecting foreign-led bids for infrastructure assets, including the $16.2 billion Ausgrid electricity grid.
"What does it mean? These new divestments mean that, out of more than 2000 investigations of potential illegal home-buying since the process started, there have been only 61 forced sales. Just 3 per cent of investigations find wrongdoing that forces divestment," Chinese property website Juwai.com chief executive Charles Pittar said.
"The Foreign Investment Review Board has approved $343 billion property purchases since 2010, and in total only $140 million of investments have had to be divested. Divestments are equivalent to about four hundredths of 1 per cent of the total value of approved investments.
"Meanwhile, the Australian Tax Office has estimated that 5 per cent of wealthy Australians attempt to evade paying their taxes.
"Investigations are often started when a neighbour reports a property owner to the hotline. They might see someone has bought the home next door but doesn't seem to speak English well or is new to the country."
Taken into context, "foreign investors behaved extraordinarily well", Mr Pittar added.
"We find the Chinese investors we work with to be eager to follow the rules," he said.
With wires
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