Buy property in Australia from Hong Kong?

Hi there,

I am an Australian citizen (not resident, reside in Hong Kong) and my wife is a Hong Kong person (not Australian).
My wife wants to get a loan to buy a property in Australia based on her income and not my income and my wife wishes to either own the property jointly with me or herself only, one or the other is ok. She has a good income and savings.

How can we go about it?
Who could most suitably answer these questions?
Can she get a loan in Hong Kong?
Can she get a loan in Australia?
Is there any benefit of one over the other?
Does it help that I’m Australian? Does the bank (loan provider) care if I’m Australian?
Is there any restriction on what kind of property she can get, must it be a new property?
What about Tax?

Any advice appriciated, Andrew

hi Andrew

My friend just went thru the whole process.....the Australian borrowing rules have recently tightened. Not as easy to get a loan even for locals nowadays.

Your wife will be able to buy only Apartments (or anything that has no attached to it). there are two options:- 1) She will have to borrow AUD from a HK bank. or 2) goto a HK branch of a Australian to borrow AUD. since both of you are not resident (for tax purpose), you will not be exempt from Capital Gain tax. The bank (loan provider) will treat both of you the same since your source of income is in HK (assuming you have a job)?