Less than 5000 foreigners bought houses in Australia over the past two years, says government services minister Bill Shorten, claiming an opposition proposal to ban foreign sales will not help the housing shortage. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton pledged on Thursday night that a coalition government would introduce a two-year ban on foreigners buying existing homes and cut the number of foreign students.
” “We’re going to need more than 2½ thousand houses a year.” Asked on Nine’s Today show how many foreign sales there were, Mr Dutton struggled to answer but said the whole package would reduce housing stress. “So the number of people who are foreign citizens, who are buying houses in our country is low, but nonetheless it contributes to an overall shortage of housing in our country,” he told Nine’s Today Show. “When you combine it all together is a pretty significant.