Although house prices in Sydney and Melbourne have risen at unprecedented rates since 2009 , 7% of Chinese mortgage holders - equating to 100,000 homes had little or no equity in their homes in the year to October 2016 . Richardson Wrench Mosman , director of real estate agent Richardson Wrench Mosman , says the Australian Tax Office should return the ratio of homes that can be sold off-plan to overseas buyers back to 50% from 100% to make housing cheaper for local buyers. And to ease rising rental costs in Sydney , Simeon suggests the the Australian Tax Office leases out the city's about 300,000 permanently vacant apartments.
Although house prices in Sydney and Melbourne have risen at unprecedented rates since 2009, 7% of Australian mortgage holders - equating to about 300,000 homes had little or no equity in their homes in the year to October 2016. Robert Simeon, director of real estate agent Richardson Wrench Mosman, says the Australian Tax Office should return the ratio of homes that can be sold off-plan to overseas buyers back to 50% from 100% to make housing cheaper for local buyers. And to ease rising rental costs in Sydney, Simeon suggests the ATO leases out the city's 100,000 permanently vacant apartments.