can we buy a house on 457 visa

[clark66]

Hi fed up renting, would like to buy, can we? do we pay stamp duty? are we classed as first time buyers? help

[sunnywa]

You can buy a house on a 457 visa, but I think you are restricted to buying a brand new house never lived in before.
An application has to be made to the Forgein Investment Review Board ( this is just a formality)
You do not qualify for the first time home owners grant as this is only available to permanent residents.
You will be liable for the stamp duties etc etc

[4YearItch]

Hi
The only reason we got our residency status was for buying a house. As sunnywa has listed, it's just not worth it on a 457 visa. The other downside is when you leave the country you have to sell as it's not allowed to have any foreign investment.

[misscathcart]

Have the rules changed as around ten years ago we applied to FIRB and were able to buy a home as British citizens with only tourist visas subject to the following:
The property had to be new, the builder had to have built a certain number of homes to the same design and sold them to Australians. When the property was sold the buyer had to be Australian.
I think you will find there are plenty of homes owned by people from overseas.

[donki]

As far as Im aware you dont have to buy a new house ... you do have to have a minimun of 20% deposit plus the required stamp duty

[derham]

Guy's if you are a first time buyer and the house valueis under $500K you dont pay any duty

http://www.finance.wa.gov.au/cms/content.aspx?id=2011