Australian lenders are clamping down on home loans to foreigners as concerns about the health of the nation’s housing market mount.
Westpac Banking Corp. will no longer lend to offshore customers who aren’t citizens or who don’t hold appropriate residency visas, it said in an e-mail Wednesday. It　follows　Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank Ltd. and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., which have tightened funding to overseas customers.
The changes made by the biggest banks in the country are part of a broader scrutiny of foreign buying of Australian homes, which has helped drive a 55 percent jump in home prices across the nation’s capital cities in the past seven years. Rising demand, particularly from China, has triggered community concern that locals are being priced out of the property market, prompting the government to tighten scrutiny of foreign investment.

Westpac said it won’t accept applications from non-residents, self-employed foreigners and temporary visa holders living overseas. The bank also reduced the loan-to-value ratio for mortgage applicants with foreign income to 70 percent from 80 percent.

The changes in lending policies come as the government in the state of Victoria　said　it will double a property tax for foreigners from July 1 in a move likely to undermine surging prices in its capital Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city.

来源：http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-27/australian-lenders-are-clamping-down-on-foreign-buying-of-homes

　Asia-based buyers scouting homes on Sydney’s upper north shore are requesting delayed settlements and are walking away from deals as local banks clamp down on lending to buyers who earn income offshore, and China tightens restrictions on outflows.　
Agents marketing properties in well-heeled suburbs, including Wahroonga, Pymble, Roseville and Killara, have noted price falls of up to 3 per cent and softer levels of demand, as the appetite from Asia-based buyers falls away.
Other sources indicate price falls could be as high as 8 per cent.
“We’ve noticed it since Nov-ember and the number of overseas buyers is dropping,” Savills Cordeau Marshall chief executive Craig Marshall said.
The veteran agent, who runs a string of agencies along the upper north shore, has noticed a 30-40 per cent drop in the number of Asian bidders on homes since this time last year, in a region of Sydney that has relied heavily on the Chinese community to make up the bulk of transactions over the past two years. “The level of competition and bidding has slowed, but there’s only been a slight adjustment in prices so far, nothing major ... about 3 per cent on average,” he said.
Some homes are still selling at prices above market value, he added, but other homes were facing long waiting times on market.
Some buyers are seeking delayed settlements in a bid to gain time to secure funds currently in offshore bank accounts.
“I don’t think it’s so much an issue of the local banks tightening up, I think the biggest impact has been from the Chinese government,” Luschwitz real estate agent Mark Blake said.
“They know what’s going on here, and they’re tightening up on funds leaving the country; it’s absolutely going to continue to have an impact on our market.”
The Pymble-based agent has had an interested buyer lodge an offer in the past week with a request for a November settlement, explaining that it will take some time to retrieve funds needed for the transaction from China.
“They told me they couldn’t get money out of China the way they used to, and had to request a longer time to pay,” he said.

来源：http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/property/asian-home-buyers-beat-a-retreat-as-lenders-clamp-down/news-story/2c6813d150b2948d7f2e8973536431ce