Land cash from overseas
FOREIGN INVESTORS: $11m spent in Toowoomba region
GEZELLIG! The Dutch people who spent $4.07 million on Toowoomba land in 2013-14 will know exactly what that means.
Loosely translated as “nice”, the happy owner who profited from the sale was probably thinking just that.
The 2014 foreign ownership of land register annual report shows foreigners spent $11,362,780 on land in the Toowoomba district last financial year.
Buyers from the Netherlands spent $4,070,000, Germans paid $1,875,000 and China forked out $1,385,000.
Japan (7929ha), Germany (7534) and the USA (4242) are the region’s top foreign land owners with people and companies from at least 10 countries owning 29,823ha.
Overseas interests own about 573 parcels of land with Malaysia (101), Malta (93) and the United Kingdom (84) topping the list.
But Toowoomba’s foreign land investments were middle of the range compared to the rest of regional Queensland.
Ipswich – where land worth $92.5m passed into foreign hands – easily outstripped Toowoomba.
Mackay at $35,681,750 and the Sunshine Coast at $15,636,250 also attracted more foreign buyers.
Toowoomba/Darling Downs Real Estate Institute of Queensland zone chairman David Snow said foreign investment in the city should be embraced.
“From the point of view of foreign investment – it’s not something to be afraid of,” Mr Snow said.
“I believe it needs to be something to be embraced but you have to bore down to the reason the foreign investor is wanting to invest here.
“If it’s just a smash and grab – let’s get in there and buy some land and develop it and go again and not care about the legacy they leave – then I wouldn’t support that.
“If they are people who are going to come in and look at the potential growth of Toowoomba, and say ‘how can we invest here and provide a product that the community wants or needs, and may not understand what they want at the moment and leave a better footprint over the entire community’, then yes that’s something to be applauded.”
Property investment expert Dr Andrew Wilson, of the Domain Group, said Toowoomba had matured as an investment capital and that could have hindered overseas buyers.
“There’s been a lot of investment in Toowoomba over the last two or three years,” Dr Wilson said.
“It’s been the fastest growing region in Queensland in terms of property prices.
“It’s also had arguably the fastest-growing economy in regional Queensland.
“So that puts up the affordability barriers and maybe that’s part of the switch across to Ipswich in a sense as being a new area.
“It’s a mature area now – there’s been a lot of investment in there.
“Prices growth has certainly flattened but it would have had to because it was growing so strongly.”
Dr Wilson said foreign investment was vital for a strong economy.
“It is money coming into the country and foreign exchange is part of trade so that’s a positive because it does add to the wealth of our country – it’s an import of capital,” he said.
“It’s an opportunity from that import of capital to create higher levels of investment and that’s part of activating economic activity.
“It’s (foreign investment) a tick for the economic performance of local areas or regions – that’s all positive.”
-APN NEWSDESK