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An international style penthouse that sold six years ago for $8.1 million in Elizabeth Bay is one of the latest homes where the FIRB is seeking forced divestment, after its owners came forward in the amnesty on illegal purchases that ends in November.
The top-floor company title apartment at Darnley Hall on Onslow Avenue was bought by Paul Longmuir and wife Elain Wei Ah Kwan in 2009 from Tony Benjamin, the property investor best known for ownership of the Holiday Lodge Hotel, Potts Point historic terrace.
The Longmuirs have since spent $16 million buying in Bellevue Hill, but the Bellevue Hill home is not under suspicion for breaching any foreign investment rules. 
It was a seven bedroom Bellevue Hill property sold by the Indonesian media mogul Eddy Sariaatmadja.
As the departing Elizabeth Bay Longmuir couple came forward themselves under Joe Hockey's crackdown, they will have 12 months to sell the home, though there are unconfirmed suggestions it may have already been quietly sold. No knowledge of any fresh sale by the last selling agent, Jason Boon at Elizabeth Bay's Richardson &amp;Wrench agency.
Sales must take place within three months for owners who do not come forward voluntarily.
Additionally by coming forward the owners will keep all the capital gain appreciation, but next year under tough new laws being debated in parliament currently, they will risk their gains.
The other homes up for divestment are in Ardross in Perth, Underdale in Adelaide, Stretton in Brisbane and Labrador on the Gold Coast.
The Darnley Hall penthouse renovation was described as "hard to pin down as being from one particular place," by Tony Benjamin's then partner, Kym Elphinstone, an arts consultant.
"This could be Sydney, Paris, London, San Francisco or Hong Kong and is the result of inﬂuences drawn globally," <a href="https://www.tonkaandjelkovicdesign.com/portfolio/" target="_blank">Kym noted.</a>
"We travel a lot and I guess we’ve pulled together what we like from different places as sympathetically to our own environment as possible."
Inspired by French-born botanist Patrick Blanc’s much-published vertical garden walls on buildings throughout the world, the couple decided on as much greenery as possible on the terrace. 
A former bedroom has been converted into a state-of-the-art kitchen that also opens up to the terrace through original French doors
High ceilings, original architraves and grand rooms were all period features that had been the main attraction when they bought in 2007. 
The purchase triggered a two-year period of re-modelling and restoration with the collaboration of interior designer Tonka Andjelkovic, with a difﬁcult existing ﬂoor plan. 
Above images courtesy of <a href="https://www.tonkaandjelkovicdesign.com" target="_blank">Tonkaandjelkovic design</a>.
Below picture was taken prior to renovation.
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2015/09/17/1602_192482_3_1194772641.jpg" alt="" width="477" height="318"> 
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Inside Darnley Hall, Joe Hockey's latest forced FIRB trophy Sydney divestiture home 

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<div>EXPERT OBSERVATION</div>
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<div>The Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) released its Annual Report for the 2017 financial year, and as expected it showed that investment in new apartments from mainland Chinese investors has been annihilated by a combination of fee charges and tighter capital controls.</div>
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There's much more to the Annual Report than just the residential real estate investment aspect, of course, but this is a blog not an Encyclopaedia Britannica so let's crack straight into it. 
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<div>Although the impact on total foreign investment was played down in the report, the reality is that the number of residential approvals have been smoked, down by 67 per cent from the prior year. </div>
 
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<div>Similarly the value of residential approvals crashed 65 per cent lower from $72.4 billion to $25.2 billion. </div>
 
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<div>The bulk of new approvals through this unprecedented cycle have been for new dwelling exemption certificates, mainly for Chinese investors.</div>
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<div>Looking at these numbers it's not hard to understand how Sydney now has more apartments approved but not yet commenced than at any time in its history, as <a href="http://petewargent.blogspot.com.au/2018/04/bust-looms-for-sydneys-apartment" target="_blank">detailed here previously</a>.</div>
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<div>The offshore buyers have dried up, demand from domestic investors has been stymied, and the demand from owner-occupiers is insufficient to get new development project finance across the line. </div>
 
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<div>Statistically it appears to be a certainty that Sydney will experience the greatest number of failed apartment projects as these trends flow through. </div>
 
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<div>I expect to see plenty of apartment projects stalling, and increasing signs of discounting on new Sydney apartments. Perhaps this was an inevitable end-game for this cycle, where development has been too much skewed towards apartments for investors, and too little towards the types of medium-density dwellings that people want to reside in.</div>
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<div>The wrap</div>
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<div>As noted, there is much more to foreign investment than just new apartment purchases, with total investment of $168 billion only 4 per cent below the level seen in the prior year. </div>
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<div>And indeed, investment in manufacturing, agriculture, ports, other commercial real estate, and resources has catapulted China to become by far and away the greatest investor in Australia at $38.9 billion in FY2017, miles ahead of the United States in second place at $26.5 billion.</div>
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<div>Nevertheless, these figures will have some significant impacts on the new apartment sector, construction trends, and the broader economy - and especially so in Sydney.</div>
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PETE WARGENT is the co-founder of AllenWargent property buyers (London, Sydney) and a best-selling author and <a href="https://petewargent.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">blogger</a>.
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Local demand insufficient to get projects across the line as offshore apartment buyers dry up: Pete Wargent

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Figures from Federal Treasury show there were 88,000 established homes owned by temporary residents as of March 2015.
There are concerns that people on temporary residency visas — who are entitled to buy established homes as long as they sell on leaving the country — have kept their properties as investments.
NSW accounts for 26% with Victoria constituting 25 per cent of those home approvals as temporary visa-holders.
Western Australia accounts for 22% of the established housing market for temporary residents, Fairfax Media report.
Queensland has 19% followed by South Australia with 4%, the ACT with 1.5%, Tasmania with 1.1% and Northern Territory with 0.2%.
Temporary residents are allowed to buy one established dwelling to live in, but are required to sell it when their visa expires or the property is no longer their primary residence.
 
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NSW heads the 88,000 temporary resident home ownership stats

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Barnaby Joyce, the Federal Agriculture Minister, has backed calls for a veto on foreign governments being allowed to buy Australian farmland.
Mr Joyce said he had no issue with private foreign companies buying farms, agribusinesses or food processing assets because they “come and go” depending on the financial returns they earn.
“I just don’t want to see agricultural land owned by foreign governments,” Mr Joyce was reported as saying to The Australian.
“The land we stand on is intrinsic to our values and identity as a nation. I wouldn’t want to see Australian farmland become under the control of the government of another nation.”
The comments come as the Kidman cattle empire is for sale with $350 million hopes.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in Canberra this morning that the government had "always taken a special interest in foreign governments buying anything in Australia, including land.
"Any foreign government investment in Australia is subject from the first dollar to Foreign Investment Review Board scrutiny and that’s the way it should be.
“(Mr Joyce) was simply making the point that when it comes to foreign governments as opposed to private businesses from overseas different rules apply. 
"They always have and, as far as I’m concerned, they always will.”
 
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Barnaby Joyce doesn't want S Kidman farms to fall into sovereign wealth government hands

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What started as Chinese sovereign funds making exploratory investments in Australia has now proliferated into investment sprees by Chinese developers, banks, ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWI’s) and institutional investors such as insurance companies.
The attractiveness of mature gateway markets in the UK, US and Australia is pulling capital out of China, providing quality products and higher yield returns with diversification benefits and assisting institutions and developers build their brand internationally. 
The first wave of Chinese capital outflow saw sovereign wealth funds, banks and private funds investing in core, trophy assets with examples including CIC and Bright Ruby Group acquiring core office assets in the Sydney CBD. Large developers followed, looking to diversify with an overseas presence.
The 10th Demystifying Chinese Investment report was by KPMG and The University of Sydney, who given the unprecedented increase in commercial real estate investment partnered with Knight Frank, to provide a more detailed account of Chinese commercial real estate investment activity in Australia.
"The catalyst for our report series is the historic lack of detailed factual information about the real nature and distribution of China’s outbound direct investment (ODI) in Australia," report authors Doug Ferguson and Hans Hendrischke said.
"Our reports seek to set the record straight and debunk the myths associated with Chinese investment in this country," 
It noted, somewhat dichotomously, the Federal Government has proposed changes to the foreign investment framework or private residences in Australia, announced as part of an options paper released in February 2015.
"This may impact Chinese commercial investment flows.
"However, even if implemented in their entirety, it is unlikely to deter the large scale development and investment into commercial and residential markets."
Here are Property Observer's 17 key takeouts of<a href="https://demystifyingchina.com.au/reports/demystifying-chinese-investment-2015.pdf" target="_blank"> the 8000 word report</a>.
1) The gateway cities of Australia, namely Sydney and Melbourne, have been the most active markets for Chinese investors. With their relative geographic proximity, relatively higher yields, market stability and liquidity, total Chinese real estate investment volume in these two cities outstripped both London and New York in 2014. 
2) But China’s outward investment into real estate has seen Chinese high net worth investors and developers now looking to new destinations offering discounts on prime property such as Miami in the US; and in Australia, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide and regional suburbs of NSW and Victoria will start to gain more traction. 
3) For the first time, nearly half of Chinese investment was concentrated in commercial real estate transactions, up from 14% in 2013.
4) For the first time, Chinese private sector investment in Australia exceeded state owned enterprise investment in number of deals (85% of total) as well as in total value (66%, AUD 6.23 billion) in 2014. Fifty-one private deals were recorded in 2014, compared to 25 in 2013.
5) NSW attracted 72% of investment.
6) Australia maintained its position as the second largest recipient country of aggregated global Chinese direct investment between 2007 and 2014, behind the United States in first position.
7) According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, China now ranks as Australia's fifth largest investor with 4% of investment stock, behind the United States (24%), the United Kingdom (13$), Japan (10%) and the Netherlands (6%), equal to Singapore (4%) and ahead of Canada (3%).
8) Chinese direct investment in Australia in 2014 was mainly focused on commercial real estate, infrastructure and for the first time, a material investment in the tourism and leisure sectors.
9) 2014 saw a dramatic increase in commercial real estate investment, accounting for 46 percent of the total 2014 value – up from 14 percent in 2013. Chinese investment volume in commercial real estate has nearly quadrupled in one year to A$4.37 billion, a surge fuelled by a combination of push and pull factors, with a number of key domestic economic and policy variables contributing. 
10) Another major push comes from some significant easing of overseas investment policies. For example, in late 2013 the outward investment approval threshold was raised from USD 100 million to USD 1 billion and in October 2014, the Ministry of Commerce removed prior approval for most foreign investment. The total assets of China’s insurance industry doubled over the past 5 years to RMB 9.6 trillion (USD 1.6 trillion) as at October 2014. By 2020, authorities estimate that the Chinese insurance industry will accumulate a further RMB 20 trillion worth of premiums, tripling the current pool size.
11) There are a number of pull factors at play fuelling investment in overseas markets:
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<li>As these investors and developers already have extensive domestic exposure, offshore investments help them diversify risk into markets that offer better returns and lower funding costs. Funding costs in Shanghai and Beijing are very high, notwithstanding recent cuts, often at above 8 percent. In contrast, funding costs can be as low as 4 percent in Australia and an easing cycle is underway. </li>
<li>Deep, liquid and transparent markets with scale – clarity of rules and regulations. </li>
<li>The quality of life, weather, clean air and world class education institutions all act as a magnet to Chinese developers and migrants alike. </li>
<li>Overseas acquisitions help Chinese institutions build their brands internationally. </li>
<li>Owner occupiers (eg. big banks) use investments to help manage their future occupation costs. Banks such as CCB, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and Commercial Bank of China have all been active in the commercial market globally over the past year.  </li>
<li>12) For many wealthy Chinese, the risk of buying property in unfamiliar overseas markets such as Australia can be offset by buying projects offered by Chinese developers, providing a sense of both familiarity and pride. However, our recent conversations with several pioneering Chinese developers revealed that they are increasingly realising the need not just to cater for Chinese buyers, but to tailor project design elements and marketing strategies to the broader local markets. </li>
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<li>They are no longer distinguishing buyers by nationality or relying primarily on demand from Chinese buyers. Robust local sales conditions have become one of their most commonly stated criteria for project screening. They aim to expand and leverage their brand identity overseas and to take advantage of this demand. Chinese developers, however, have the added advantage of being able to attract a significant pool of Chinese buyers, who often purchase off-plan, which helps to de-risk their development projects. Greenland has invested heavily into Australian development projects, tapping predominately into cities such as Sydney and Melbourne. Dalian Wanda Group, one of China’s largest mixed-use developers, is developing major hotel and residential projects in Sydney and the Gold Coast.</li>
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13) Since the end of 2007 and the onset of the GFC, the Renminbi (RMB) has appreciated considerably against a basket of major currencies, including 37 percent against the British Pound, 38 percent against the Euro, 15 percent against the US dollar and 26 percent against the Australian dollar. This has largely strengthened the purchasing power of Chinese investors, as overseas investment has become relatively cheaper. Many Chinese investors see this as a good opportunity to acquire foreign assets. 
In the face of a cooling Chinese economy, RMB appreciation is expected to slow down in the coming years. Currency fluctuation is a double-edged sword for Chinese investors. Since Greenland’s acquisition of their Melbourne site, the Australian dollar has depreciated roughly 18 percent against the Renminbi. On the flip side, this devaluation now favours any Chinese investors who buy into this and any other residential schemes.
14) Currently, the third wave of equity investors and insurance firms are seeking core, value-add and yield-driven opportunities. Only four of the top 10 Chinese insurance companies have made offshore investments so far, although the remaining six are considering overseas expansion. Sunshine Insurance Group’s purchase of the Sheraton on the Park Hotel in Sydney for a record AUD 463 million in November 2014.
15) Chinese developers, however, have been more aggressive, with eight of the top 10 players having already made offshore investments, seven of which have been active in Australia, and other developers are contemplating such a move. Greenland Group, one of Shanghai’s largest state- owned enterprises, has purchased numerous development sites in Sydney’s CBD and other metropolitan markets in Sydney and Melbourne. Other developers currently actively developing product include Country Garden, Chiwayland, Bridgehill, Aqualand, Golden Age, JQZ, R&amp;F Properties, Golden Horse and Dalian Wanda (Wanda One). 
After heavy investment in prime office buildings and subsequent yield compression in gateway cities, Chinese investors have begun to look increasingly at opportunities in other key cities and other property sectors and importantly in suburban locations in metropolitan Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, not just within the CBD and fringe markets.  
Whereas investors traditionally targeted the core office and residential development sector, they are now also targeting a more diversified group of real estate assets, from hotels and leisure to industrial to student accommodation. Brisbane and the Gold Coast have begun to capture more residential development interest from Chinese investors and developers.  
There has been increasing activity in non-core areas of Brisbane, such as Newstead and Fortitude Valley, and this is expected to broaden to more metropolitan sites and to the Gold Coast, where Wanda has co-invested in an AUD 1 billion beachfront site. These markets are underpriced relative to Sydney and Melbourne, and we expect Chinese developers to continue to seek entry to these markets. 
Adelaide and more satellite or regional suburbs of NSW and Victoria will start to gain traction/interest from Chinese and we should see some stronger price growth occur also. In the commercial sector, retail and hotels will start to garner more interest following relatively subdued activity over the past few years relative to office and residential development sites.
16) A new group of entities is quickly emerging as a fourth wave of capital outflow. This group constitutes not only big-name companies, but also UHNWIs, small- to mid- cap SOEs, and smaller, private developers. UHNWIs are exploring Australian investment opportunities mainly for secured income, capital appreciation, risk diversification, personal interest and to link with the strong education sector. Their investment strategies are far ranging, and they are open to different asset classes, with interests ranging from smaller shopping centres, such as the Campsie Centre, to offices such as 299 Elizabeth Street in the Sydney CBD, residential units and lifestyle properties.
17) Given the distinctive policy-driven nature of the Chinese market, however, Australia should equally be aware of the risk of policy reversals over time.
 
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17 facts about Chinese investment in Australia: KPMG/University of Sydney/Knight Frank

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Breaches of Australia’s foreign property investment laws have prompted former Treasurer Joe Hockey to announce five further forced sales of properties purchased by overseas buyers.
The former Treasurer said 500 FIRB investigations are underway into more than $1 billion worth of residential real estate.
Tax commissioner Chris Jordan announced the investigations at a press conference with Joe Hockey.
They advised the properties to be sold are in Labrador on the Gold Coast, Ardross in Perth, Sydney’s Elizabeth Bay, Underdale in Adelaide and the Brisbane suburb of Stretton.
They were acquired unlawfully by foreign nationals from Singapore, Indonesia, the UK and China.
They voluntarily came forward under the amnesty announced in May.
The highest purchase price was $8.1 million, understood to be a penthouse in Elizabeth Bay.
The cheapest was a $265,000 property.
They have 12 months to sell the properties under the amnesty that ends of November, Joe Hockey said.
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Joe Hockey orders five more illegal FIRB forced property sales

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The Federal Government will block the sale of Australia's largest cattle property portfolio, S. Kidman &amp; Co, to foreign buyers.
Treasurer Scott Morrison said in a statement he had decided that an acquisition of the company by a foreign buyer would be contrary to the national interest and he would not authorise it.
The family-owned S. Kidman &amp; Co is Australia's largest private landholder with properties covering 101,000 square kilometres in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.
Around $350 million had been sought.
Founded in 1899 by Sir Sidney Kidman, it is now one of the country's largest beef producers with a herd of 185,000 cattle, supplying markets in Japan, the United States and South-East Asia.
"Consistent with the recommendation from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), I have decided that the acquisition by foreign investors of S. Kidman and Co. Limited would be contrary to the national interest and shall not be authorising the sale to proceed as currently proposed," he said.
"Importantly, around 50 per cent of the Anna Creek pastoral lease is located in the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) in South Australia.
"The WPA weapons testing range makes a unique and sensitive contribution to Australia's national defence and it is not unusual for governments to restrict access to sensitive areas on national security grounds.
"Given the size and significance of the total portfolio of Kidman properties along with the national security issues around access to the WPA, I have determined, after taking advice from FIRB, that it would be contrary to Australia's national interest for a foreign person to acquire S. Kidman and Co. in its current form.
"I note that following communication of my decision all bidders to acquire S. Kidman and Co. Limited have elected to withdraw their FIRB applications prior to my Final Order being formalised."
S. Kidman &amp; Co's managing director, Greg Campbell told the ABC he was surprised by the Government's decision to block the sale.
"To be honest I didn't think this would be the outcome.
"I knew there would be concerns, however cyber espionage around the world seems to operate quite successfully in its own right without the need to acquire an outback cattle property like Anna Creek."
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Foreigners banned from buying $350 million S.Kidman farm

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A mainland-based Chinese tycoon is the latest being ordered to dispose of his illegally-owned Australian home with the $5.2 million Hawthorn East property being the first Melbourne divestment order.
It comes from Treasurer Scott Morrison who ordered the sale of the mansion after the owner was caught breaching Australia’s foreign ownership laws.
The property is one of five in Melbourne that will be forcibly sold after investigations by the Australian Taxation Office, according to the Herald Sun.
The five bedroom Tudor-style house on 1455 sqm at 6 Higham Rd, Hawthorn East, (above) was purchased <a href="/expert-insights/buying/31908-higham-hawthorn-east-trophy-home-sells-for-5-2-million-weekend-s-highest-sale" target="_blank">at Kay &amp; Burton auction on May 31 last year</a>. There were three bidders after the $4.2 million opening bid.
With Westpac funding, Li Jian Guo used $300,000 bids to knock out rivals at the auction. It had previously sold in 1988 at $940,000 when bought by the Karkar family.
Treasurer Scott Morrison said the house was bought without approval. The Herald Sun advises the owner drives a Bentley.
Mr Morrison has ordered four other properties to be sold off, after their overseas owners were found to be holding them ­illegally.
They are an $802,000 house at Springvale and three Carlton properties worth $225,000, $235,000 and $585,000.
The Springvale home and the most expensive Carlton property are owned by mainland China buyers.
The two smaller properties are owned by Hong Kong buyers.
Several properties,<a href="/news/40744-villa-del-mare" target="_blank"> ­including Villa del Mare, a $39 million ­harbourside mansion in Sydney</a>, have been ordered to be sold off under an Abbott Government FIRB enforecement crackdown that has continued into the Turnbull era.
Some 125 foreign investors have taken up an amnesty from the Australian Tax Office to declare their unauthorised ownership of real estate in Australia, according to documents obtained by Guardian Australia under a freedom of information request by the website.
The 125 investors have declared their status ahead of the FIRB deadline expiring on 30 November, the documents show.
A spokeswoman for the ATO repeated it had separately identified about 500 potential breaches of foreign investment laws it was investigating, a number of them from these disclosures.
Breaches of Australia’s foreign property investment laws prompted former Treasurer Joe Hockey to announce in September five forced sales of properties purchased by overseas buyers.
The former Treasurer then said 500 FIRB investigations are underway into more than $1 billion worth of residential real estate.
Tax commissioner Chris Jordan announced the investigations at a press conference with Joe Hockey.
They advised the properties to be sold are in Labrador on the Gold Coast, Ardross in Perth, <a href="/news/46258-inside-darnley-hall-joe-hockey-s-latest-forced-firb-trophy-divestiture-home" target="_blank">Sydney’s Elizabeth Bay</a>, Underdale in Adelaide and the Brisbane suburb of Stretton.
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$5.2 million Hawthorn East home among five facing ATO-FIRB compulsory sale orders from Treasurer Scott Morrison

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Chinese investments in Australia have nearly doubled from 2014, with $46.6 billion planned spends in 2014-15, according to the latest Foreign Investment Review Board annual report.
In 2014, China shot past the US for the first time, after agreeing to spend $27.7 billion, said a report in the Australian Financial Chronicle.
There were 37,953 proposals that received foreign investment approval in 2014‑15, up from 24,102 in 2013‑14.
The real estate sector took the biggest chunk, with 37,347 approvals in 2014‑15, compared with 23,428 approvals in 2013‑14 and more than triple the levels of 2012‑13, the FIRB report said. The majority of this increase related to new dwellings approvals, which is consistent with the Australian government’s policy to increase the housing stock by channelling foreign investment into new dwellings. 
Expectedly, real estate investments made up the bulk of Chinese investment plans with a total of $24 billion, double that of 2014.
To date, Chinese investors have doubled their investments in real estate in both the 2014 and 2015 years, said AFR.
The rise in foreign investments has also raised security concerns.  
Following the leasing of the Port of Darwin to Chinese company Landbridge, which has links to the People's Liberation Army, FIRB enacted an amendment to the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Regulations on April 4 to remove the exemption for private foreign investors investing in critical infrastructure assets.
FIRB will now formally review the sale of state-owned infrastructure assets to private foreign investors.
Concerns also loomed over the sale of Kidman &amp; Co, which owns 100,000 square kilometres of land across Australia, but they are likely to be chased by two Chinese groups GLAM with a bid as high as $370 million and Pengxin offering $350 million, the AFR cited sources as saying. 
The United States remains Australia’s dominant inward investor country, accounting for around 23.7 per cent of the total stock of foreign direct investment as at the end of 2014, data from FIRB shows.
No proposals were rejected in 2014‑15, compared with three in 2013‑14, but conditions were imposed on about 40 per cent of all foreign investment approvals, it said.
 
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