Hi Welcome
Terry mentioned "FIRB: Approval will be necessary". I always tell my overseas friends that one of the easy ways to invest in residential real estate in Australia, is to buy a block of land and build a house on it. The FIRB website shows this to be a pretty staightforward process:
"Vacant Land
Proposed acquisitions of vacant land for residential development are normally approved subject to development condition(s) imposed under the FATA.
Acquisitions of single blocks of vacant land (that is, land which is zoned to permit the construction of no more than one residential dwelling per block of land) for the purpose of building a single residential dwelling on each block are normally approved subject to the following condition:
•continuous substantial construction must commence within 24 months.
Acquisitions of other vacant land (not single blocks) for the purpose of building multiple residential dwellings are normally approved subject to the following conditions:
•continuous substantial construction must commence within 24 months; and
•at least 50 per cent of the acquisition cost or the current market value of the land (whichever is higher) must be spent on development.
Once these conditions have been fulfilled, properties acquired under this category may be rented out, sold to Australian interests or other eligible purchasers, or retained for the foreign investor's own use."
Cheers, Paul