Australian land owned by Chinese investors soars tenfold

Chinese investors now own ten times more Australian land than they did last year.

More than 2.5 per cent, or 14 million hectares of agricultural land, are owned by Chinese interests.

The UK and China are the largest owners of foreign-held land in Australia, according to figures from The Australian Tax Office’s Agricultural Land Register.

Foreigners own a quarter of land in the Northern Territory and 14 per cent of all farms across Australia, The Age reported.

In Queensland foreign interests own more than 17 million hectares, and in NSW and Victoria over 3 million hectares.

In November last year Fairfax revealed land owned by Chinese investors had risen to over 3 million hectares.

But the register now shows the figure is over ten times that amount, thanks to a series of significant sales in Western Australia.

Foreign investors ‘held just 13.6 per cent of all Australian agricultural land’ on June 30 this year, Treasurer Scott Morrison said.

‘The Turnbull government understands that trade and foreign investment creates jobs for Australians,’ he said.

Foreign investors ‘held just 13.6 per cent of all Australian agricultural land’ on June 30 this year, Treasurer Scott Morrison said