One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce has claimed that “people who look like they’ve recently arrived” are knocking Australian buyers out of home auctions, despite tax office data showing fewer than 1% of dwellings are bought by foreigners.
The federal race discrimination commissioner subsequently warned against “demonising migrants” in the debate about housing affordability.
Existing property laws, extended by Labor in last month’s budget, ban non-residents from buying most Australian property types, and require foreign buyers to apply for approval from the tax office.
In an interview on Channel Seven’s Sunrise on Monday, Joyce, the member for New England, called for a more sustainable immigration policy in Australia.
“People in Australia, born in Australia of every creed and colour and gender, get sick of going to a house auction and being knocked out of it by people, to be frank, who look like they’ve recently arrived,” Joyce said.
The Labor minister Tanya Plibersek, appearing alongside Joyce on the TV panel, replied: “They were being knocked out by investors, Barnaby. That’s why we’re changing the tax system.”
Giridharan Sivaraman, the federal race discrimination commissioner, said discussions about migration and housing were legitimate but that “the issue is when migrants are blamed, and certain types are singled out”.
“We should be able to have a nuanced, careful discussion about migration without demonising migrants,” he told Guardian Australia.
Michael Fotheringham, the managing director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, said the statistics did not support Joyce’s claim.
“The number of non-residents owning property is fleetingly small,” he said.
Less than 1% of purchases
Australian Taxation Office statistics show that in 2024-25 the number of Australian residential dwellings acquired by foreign persons (which includes temporary residents) was just 0.5% of all property acquisitions, numbering 2,672 out of 540,439.
In 2023-24, foreign purchases were 0.8% of all property acquisitions, or 4,092 out of 525,039; and in 2022-23, the number was 0.9%, or 4,463 out of 476,136.
In 2024-25, there were also 1,951 purchases of vacant land by foreigners; as well as 2,173 in 2023-24, and 897 in 2022-23.
“It’s less than 1%, it’s a trivial number,” Fotheringham said of foreign dwelling purchases.
“Even if you required some length of time in Australia before you could purchase for new residents, the numbers are fleetingly small … it doesn’t even rate as a blip, it’s not a meaningful impact on the market.”
Foreign purchase ban extended
Australia bars foreigners from buying established dwellings in Australia but allows foreign residents to buy a “new or near-new dwelling, an established dwelling for redevelopment, an off-the-plan property [and] vacant residential land”.
New and off-the-plan properties are generally not sold via auction.
The tax office states: “If you are a foreign person, you must apply for approval from us, the Australian Taxation Office, before buying a residential property in Australia.”
Labor’s May budget extended “the temporary ban on foreign purchases of established residential dwellings” until 30 June 2029, extending the rules legislated in April 2025.
“The extension of the ban will mean Australians will be able to buy homes that would have otherwise been bought by foreign persons, while encouraging foreign persons to boost Australia’s housing supply,” the budget papers said.
Abul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary of the immigration department and an expert in migration policy, said the existing rules blocked most foreign residents from buying Australian property.
“If you turn up and bid for an existing property at auction, then the process of sale has to go through the Firb [Foreign Investment Review Board] and they would say, ‘you’re a temporary entrant, this is an existing dwelling, you’re banned from purchasing this’,” he said.
“If you make your judgments based on being a spectator at an auction, that might not be the accurate [way] of assessing the market.”
Policy not ‘written down’
One Nation’s foreign ownership policy came in for ridicule last week, when Joyce had to request a do-over of a Sky News interview after incorrectly saying his party would force permanent residents to sell their homes.
The policy, he said after checking with colleagues, would only apply to non-residents.
Joyce’s colleague Sean Bell, who also failed to clearly explain the policy in subsequent interviews, later clarified that One Nation would seek to force “foreigners and temporary visa holders” to sell their homes within two years or face large fines or imprisonment.
On Monday, Joyce downplayed his mistake.
“I made a mistake because we didn’t have the policy written down, and I corrected it on the same interview, and all of a sudden people are febrile,” he said.
Plibersek ridiculed the episode, stating: “So you just made it up? You didn’t have it written down. You just made it up?”
One Nation’s policy on “foreign ownership” on its website states: “We must stop the sale of property to non-residents and non-citizens.”
Joyce was contacted for comment.
