Registration of agricultural land for foreign investors

Register your interest or investment if you are a foreign person investing in Australian agricultural land.

Registering an asset

Before you invest in Australian agricultural land, you may need to apply for foreign investment approval.

After you have invested, you need to register your agricultural land (asset) on the Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets (the Register) and comply with your foreign investment obligations.

You must also register a legal interest as lessee in a lease giving rights–– to occupy agricultural land if the term of the lease (including any extension or renewal) is reasonably likely, at the time the interest is acquired, to exceed 5 years.

Registering an asset is free.

You can find the definitions of 'agricultural land' and 'foreign person' at Foreign investment terms and definitions. For further guidance, refer to the Foreign InvestmentExternal Link website.

Who must register

If you are a foreign person and have invested in Australian agricultural land, you or your authorised representative must register the asset, unless an exemption applies.

Generally, the foreign person with the direct legal interest is required to register the agricultural land (asset) with the ATO.

Registration is required regardless of the value.

Joint tenants

If you have direct legal interest and own the land jointly with other foreign persons, one owner must register the asset first. Other foreign owners in the joint tenant ownership will then add themselves to the registered asset.

You need to decide which owner will register the land. Once registered, that owner will need to give the other joint tenants the Asset ID. They will then add themselves to the asset.

Once all foreign owners are added, any owner can access and update the registered asset details.

Tenants in common

If you own the property with others and are assigned specific ownership, then each person who is a foreign person must register the asset with their percentage of ownership.

When to register

A foreign person or their authorised representative must register their agricultural land interest within 30 days of either:

• purchasing agricultural land (settlement)
• becoming a foreign person while holding an interest in agricultural land.

Exemptions may apply.

Settlement is when you can occupy the property if there is a building on it or you can commence building on vacant land.

Registrations that were held in the Register of foreign ownership of water of agricultural land (previous Register) have been moved to the Register.

How to register agricultural land

To register, log in to Online services for foreign investors and select Register asset.

Register or manage an asset has the information you need for the registration and for joint tenants to add themselves to the asset.

If you own multiple properties, you need to register each property separately.

If the property is both freehold and leasehold, you need a separate registration for each.

You can add up to 150 land titles on a registration. If you have more than 150 land titles you will need to add a new registration with the same foreign investment approval ID.

Online services for foreign investors

If your situation changes

You need to update your details in Online services for foreign investors if:

• you are no longer a foreign person
• you no longer hold agricultural land
• the land becomes agricultural land while you are holding it
• the land ceases to be agricultural land while you are holding it
• there are changes to the details of the registration, such as partial divestment, title or use.

If your:

• personal details change, update your profile – see Manage your details
• asset details change, update the asset using Add or Edit an event – see Register or manage an asset.

Penalties and reporting breaches

If you do not comply with your obligations to give a register notice or keep your details up to date, you may face an infringement notice or civil penalties.

If you have information about someone you think may be deliberately breaking our foreign investment rules, you can confidentially report a breach to us.

We use our compliance approach to ensure foreign investors comply with their obligations.

If you are having difficulties meeting your obligations, contact us.

Statistics and reporting

The Registrar provides a report to the Treasurer about the operation of the Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets. They also publish aggregate statistics of foreign ownership.

The reported statistics may include:

• the proportion of Australian agricultural land held by foreign persons
• the level of foreign interests in agricultural land by state or territory
• the level of foreign interests in agricultural land by country of ownership
• how agricultural land is used.

Only aggregated statistics are included in the report. Privacy restrictions prevent publishing information which may identify an individual or entity.

You can view the latest report on the Foreign InvestmentExternal Link website.

Register your interest or investment if you are a foreign person investing in Australian agricultural land.