The Foreign Investment Review Board’s latest annual report has revealed almost $195 billion dollars worth of overall investment was approved in 2014-15.
The board received 37,953 proposals last financial year, compared to 24,102 in 2013-14, with the real state sector largely responsible for the 16.3% jump.
The strong growth was mostly due to the increase in foreigners applying to purchase residential real estate, with the majority of the spike relating to new dwellings approvals.
This is in line with the Government’s push to increase the housing stock by encouraging foreign investment in to new property.
Overall, proposed foreign investment in residential real estate increased from $34.7 billion in 2013-14 to $60.8 billion last year, while the commercial real estate sector was responsible for $36.2 billion worth of proposed investment.
China was once again Australia’s largest investor, with Chinese investors approved to spend $46.6 billion - half of that in real estate - followed by the United States with $25 billion worth of approvals.
The other major industries outside of real estate for proposed investment were services at $38.8 billion, mineral exploration with $26.7 billion and manufacturing at $18.5 million.
While agriculture, forestry and fishing was up 54%, investment in finance and insurance up 292%, and tourism declined by almost half.
The report also shows there weren’t any proposals rejected, but 40 per cent of all foreign investment approvals had conditions applied.
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