Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land

Report of registrations as at 30 June 2016

Contents

Background
Findings
Table 1: Proportion of agricultural land held by foreign persons
Table 2: Freehold and leasehold land interests held by foreign persons
Table 3: Summary of foreign interests in Australian agricultural land
Table 4: Foreign interests in agricultural land by land use
Table 5: Size of foreign agricultural land interests by source country, top 10
Attachment A: Definitions
Definition of Foreign Person
Definition of Agricultural Land
Attachment B: Methodology
Attachment C: Land Registration Form Fields

Background
On 11 February 2015, the Government announced a suite of reforms designed to increase transparency around foreign investment in Australia. These reforms included the establishment of a foreign ownership register of agricultural land and changes to Australia’s foreign investment screening regime as it applies to acquisitions of agricultural land. 
The Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land (Agricultural Land Register) was established on 1 July 2015 and is administered by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land Act 2015 (Agricultural Land Register Act 2015) requires foreign persons with an interest in agricultural land to register that interest on the Agricultural Land Register, regardless of the value of the land.
Investors are required to notify the ATO within 30 days if they:
>	are a foreign person starting to hold agricultural land; or
>	are a foreign person ceasing to hold agricultural land; or
>	become a foreign person while holding agricultural land; or
>	cease to be a foreign person while holding agricultural land; or
>	are a foreign person holding land that becomes agricultural land; or
>	are a foreign person holding land that ceases to be agricultural land. 
An interest in agricultural land includes a freehold interest or the right to occupy land under a lease (including a sublease or licence) where the term of the lease or licence (including any extension or renewal) is reasonably likely to exceed five years.
A stocktake was conducted between 1 July 2015 and 29 February 2016 to enable existing foreign person land holders to register their land. During this time, the ATO used data matching to contact investors who may have met the definition of foreign person and who held Australian land that may have met the definition of agricultural land. 
The register collects details about the foreign person, including name and contact details; country of incorporation and an ABN or other identifier where the registrant is an entity; or nationality, passport and visa details where the registrant is an individual.
The Commissioner of Taxation is required to report to the Treasurer on the operation of the Agricultural Land Register Act 2015, as well as publish aggregate statistics on a website. The report must not release information which could identify, or reasonably be used to identify an individual or entity. 
This report represents the first report under the Agricultural Land Register Act 2015. It covers registrations made between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2016. 

Findings
The definitions of foreign person and agricultural land for the purposes of the Agricultural Land Register are explained in Attachment A. An explanation of how the following statistics were calculated is included in Attachment B. To avoid misunderstandings, the following statistics need to be interpreted in conjunction with these attachments. Figures in tables have been rounded. Discrepancies in tables between totals and sums of components are due to rounding. 
Table 1: Proportion of agricultural land held by foreign persons 
State/Territory	Foreign Interests 
(‘000 ha)	Australian Agricultural Land (‘000 ha)	Percent Foreign 
(%)	
NSW/ACT	2,375	57,434	4.1	
VIC	607	12,009	5.1	
QLD	17,658	135,918	13.0	
WA	8,841	81,399	10.9	
SA	7,156	45,837	15.6	
TAS	342	1,569	21.8	
NT	15,169	50,392	30.1	
Total	52,147	384,558	13.6	
Table 2: Freehold and leasehold land interests held by foreign persons 
State/Territory	Freehold
(‘000 ha)	Leasehold 
(‘000 ha)	Total
(‘000 ha)	
NSW/ACT	2,146	232	2,378	
VIC	565	71	636	
QLD	5,426	12,860	18,286	
WA	798	8,045	8,842	
SA	141	7,015	7,156	
TAS	302	40	342	
NT	46	15,123	15,169	
Total 	9,423	43,385	52,808	
Table 3: Summary of foreign interests in Australian agricultural land
State/Territory	No. of Properties	Area 
(‘000 ha)	
NSW/ACT	1,798	2,375	
VIC	1,558	607	
QLD	1,345	17,658	
WA	917	8,841	
SA	614	7,156	
TAS	911	342	
NT	71	15,169	
Total 	7,214	52,147	
Table 4: Foreign interests in agricultural land by land use (‘000 ha)
State/Territory	Crops	Livestock	Horticulture	Other Farming	Forestry	Non-Farming	Unreported 	
NSW/ACT	638	1,168	74	35	122	97	242	
VIC	80	78	6	10	413	14	6	
QLD	314	15,349	76	12	353	147	1,407	
WA	419	7,602	10	15	160	511	123	
SA	23	6,983	7	1	92	37	12	
TAS	4	51	17	3	259	5	4	
NT	1	14,554	0	0	11	16	587	
Total 	1,479	45,785	190	77	1,409	827	2,381	

Table 5: Size of foreign agricultural land interests by source country top 10 (‘000 ha)
Country	Total	
United Kingdom	27,504	
United States	7,727	
Netherlands	2,976	
Singapore	1,862	
China	1,463	
Philippines	1,119	
Switzerland	1,069	
Jersey	944	
Indonesia	774	
Japan	685	
Total	46,123	

Attachment A: Definitions 
This attachment provides information on the definitions of foreign person and agricultural land as detailed in the Agricultural Land Register Act 2015. Further information on the definitions can be found in the Guidance Notes on the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) website: www.firb.gov.au.
Definition of ‘foreign person’
The term ‘foreign person’ is defined in section 4 of the Agricultural Land Register Act 2015. It states that the term has the same meaning as ‘foreign person’ as defined in section 4 of the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975.
In general, a ‘foreign person’ is:
>	an individual that is not ordinarily resident in Australia; or 
>	a foreign government or foreign government investor; or
>	a corporation, trustee of a trust or general partner of a limited partnership where an individual not ordinarily resident in Australia, foreign corporation or foreign government holds a substantial interest of at least 20 per cent; or
>	a corporation, trustee of a trust or general partner of a limited partnership in which two or more foreign persons hold an aggregate substantial interest of at least 40 per cent.
A ‘foreign government investor’ is:
>	a foreign government or separate government entity, a corporation or trustee of a trust, or a general partner of a limited partnership in which:
–	a foreign government or separate government entity holds a substantial interest of at least 20 per cent; or 
–	foreign governments or separate government entities of more than one foreign country (or parts of more than one foreign country) hold an aggregate substantial interest of at least 40 per cent.

Definition of ‘agricultural land’
‘Agricultural land’ is defined in section 4 of the Agricultural Land Register Act 2015 as ‘land in Australia that is used, or that could reasonably be used, for a primary production business.’ 
Section 5 of the Agricultural Land Register Act 2015 provides that rules may be made that specify land that will not be considered agricultural land for the purposes of the Agricultural Land Register. The Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land Rule 2015 provides that the following land will not be considered agricultural land for the purposes of the Agricultural Land Register Act 2015: 

>	Land that is not currently being wholly or predominantly used at that time for a primary production business and: 

1.	zoning approval is required from government before the land could be used for primary production; or
2.	the land is currently used, or proposed to be used for mining or activities ancillary to mining; or
3.	the land is used for environmental protection or conservation under a law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory or a legally binding agreement; or
4.	the land is located within an area that has been approved by a government authority as an industrial estate; or
5.	the size of the land is under one hectare; or
6.	the land has been approved by a government authority for use as a tourist facility, an outdoor education establishment or an outdoor recreation facility that is open to the public; or
7.	an application has been made to re-zone the land to not allow the land to be used for a primary production business, or approval has been sought to use the land for mining activities. 
>	Land where the only primary production business the land could reasonably be used for is a primary production business relating to submerged plants and animals. 

Attachment B: Methodology
The high level statistics are based on the information provided by registrants. 

1.	Data was extracted from the Agricultural Land Register database on 30 June 2016.

2.	Some registrations have been altered in accordance with section 16 of the Agricultural Land Register Act 2015 when it has been determined via data matching or manual data collection that the registrant has provided incorrect information. The validation of registrations is an ongoing exercise, with information validated using ATO risk algorithms, third party data sources and manual data collection. Ultimately, the obligation to report correctly lies with the foreign person. Penalties exist under the Taxation Administration Act 1953 where a person fails to register correctly. 

3.	Registrants were able to enter the size of the land onto the Agricultural Land Register in any unit of measurement. The ATO has converted the sizes into hectares for the purposes of this report. 

4.	Entities and trusts were required to provide their country of incorporation. However, this is not necessarily a reflection of the foreign source country of the investor. Source country information has been obtained using information provided by registrants, ATO data sources and manual data collection. 

5.	Properties were given a unique identifier in the form of a composite of the property name/address, suburb and State/Territory. Counts of properties were based on instances of unique identifiers. 

6.	In some instances, the same property has been separately registered by a foreign person with a freehold interest in the land and a foreign person with a leasehold interest in the land, as required under the Agricultural Land Register Act 2015. To avoid double counting in these instances, only the freehold interest was counted. However, in Table 2, the land size information from both freehold and leasehold registrations has been included. 

1.	

Attachment C: Land Registration Form Fields
The ATO requires each registrant to complete the following fields:
Representative details
>	Name
>	Position
>	Address
>	Mobile/cell number
>	Contact email.
Reason for registration
>	Acquisition of agricultural land
>	Cease to hold agricultural land
>	Change in status: To foreign person
>	Change in status: From foreign person
>	Change in status: To agricultural land
>	Change in status: From agricultural land.
Entity/ownership details
>	Name
>	Country of incorporation (where registrant is a trust or company)
>	Address
>	Date of birth/nationality (where registrant is an individual)
>	Contact details
>	Mobile/cell number
>	Contact email.
Land title details
>	Property name and address
>	Lot/plan
>	Land area
>	Title holding type (leasehold or freehold)
>	Date of event 
>	Market value of land in Australian dollars
>	Percentage interest in the land.
Certain fields are not mandatory as they do not apply to each registrant. Voluntary fields include: 
>	Land use
>	Visa and passport details
>	ABN/ACN/ABRN/other client identifier
>	Trading name
>	FIRB approval number.