ASIA’S GOLDEN TICKET - $5 MILLION = AN AUSSIE VISA

The holder of this golden ticket will grant the recipient with residency to Australia for a sweet $5 million! Wealthy Asian investors are lining up for this sugar coated deal set up by the Federal Government which waives the usual criteria for skilled migrants – such as an ability to speak English – in exchange for a mouth-watering investment in Australia. This “ticket” gives residence to cashed-up applicants with $5 million or more to invest here, extending that to permanent residency if the investment is maintained for four years.
The new Significant Investor Stream Visa (as it is officially known) requires an investment of at least $5 million in state or territory bonds; an ASIC-regulated managed investment fund; or a direct investment in an Australian company, which would include investments in commercial property backing a business such as a hotel or lodge.
The visa allows immigrants to skip skilled migration requirements such as being proficient in English and requires immigrants spend a minimum of just 40 days a year in Australia over the four-year visa period.
There is also no upper age limit, and the main applicant does not have to meet the business points test.
The Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) requirements must still be met under the visa 188 and 888. However, most commercial enterprises have a substantial financial threshold (currently $244 million) before requiring FIRB approval.
Tony Hogarth, who is a registered migration agent, says it is significant that English language is not a requirement for these visas
“This is likely to open up the Australian market to Chinese investors in particular, where language skills may have been a prohibitive factor in the past.”
The visa complements a number of factors that make investing in Australian residential projects particularly appealing to Asian investors.
Asian investors already benefit from easy access to capital, and they also have tremendous competitive advantages over local developers of residential projects, including:
• Lower costs of funds from offshore sources;
• Established project marketing avenues in south-east Asia, leading to strong and rapid pre-sales of apartments; and
• A capacity to bypass onerous pre-sale requirements of the local banks.
These factors allow Asia-based developers to respond more rapidly to market conditions and deliver projects more quickly than most local developers.
We welcome our Asian friends to get their teeth stuck into this!