Brits own small piece of paradise

Around six per cent of Queensland is foreign-owned – and the largest proportion of that is by owners from the United Kingdom.

The 2016-17 Foreign Ownership of Land Register tabled in Parliament today lists total land that is foreign owned as notified to the Registrar of Titles.

The top three nations are the United Kingdom, with 2.2 per cent; the Netherlands with 1.09 per cent and China with less than one per cent – 0.94 per cent.

Queensland is the only Australian state or territory that produces a foreign land ownership report.

The Australian Taxation Office started producing one in 2016 after the Commonwealth created a register of foreign ownership of agricultural land.

The Commonwealth’s figures show more land is foreign-owned because they use different definitions for foreign ownership and record it differently.

The previous year’s report was also tabled in Parliament. It has been delayed while the Department of Natural Resources and Mines has been seeking to reconcile statistics with the ATO.

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