Can someone on a bridging visa buy property in Australia?

What a bridging visa is

Home Affairs describes the bridging visas this way:

• Bridging visa A (subclass 010) lets you stay in Australia after your current substantive visa ceases and while your substantive visa application is being processed.
• Bridging visa B (subclass 020) lets you leave and return to Australia once while your application for a substantive visa is being processed.
• Bridging visa C (subclass 030) lets you stay lawfully in Australia until a decision is made on your substantive visa application.
• Bridging visa E (subclasses 050 and 051) lets you stay lawfully while you make arrangements to leave, finalise your immigration matter or wait for an immigration decision.

A bridging visa generally covers the gap while another matter is decided, so the foreign investment treatment turns on what that application is for.

How the foreign investment rules treat a bridging visa holder

Treasury's key concepts note defines a temporary resident to include someone who is residing in Australia, has submitted an application for a permanent visa and holds a bridging visa that allows them to stay until the application is finalised. The ATO says the same.

Bridging visa holders in other situations are not named in that definition. The note's wider test asks whether a person is "ordinarily resident": they must have been in Australia for 200 or more days in the past 12 months, and their continued presence must not be limited by law to a set time. A bridging visa lasts only until the related application is decided, which points to a stay limited in time. The ATO's page says you are a foreign person if you are not an Australian citizen, a permanent resident or a New Zealand citizen with a special category visa, and a bridging visa holder is none of those. The guidance notes do not work through every bridging visa case, so a lawyer can confirm the status of a specific visa.

What a bridging visa holder can buy

The ATO's page also sets out the conditions that applied to temporary residents' approvals before 1 April 2025, including a requirement to sell within 6 months once the property stops being the person's principal residence or the person stops being a temporary resident. For the position now, the established home ban guide explains what is still permitted.

How the states treat bridging visa holders

• New South Wales. Revenue NSW says that a holder of a temporary Australian visa or a bridging visa is considered a foreign person for surcharge purchaser duty, with narrow exceptions for certain partner and retirement visa holders.
• Victoria. The State Revenue Office sets out its own definition of a foreign purchaser for foreign purchaser additional duty. Check its page for how a pending visa application is treated.
• Queensland. For additional foreign acquirer duty, a foreign individual is anyone who is not an Australian citizen or permanent resident, so a bridging visa holder is foreign.

The state surcharge pages have the rates.

When the main visa is decided

If the application leads to a permanent visa, the holder is exempt from the approval requirement for residential land from the time they hold the permanent visa. The Regulation tests the visa "at the time of acquisition", so a contract signed while on the bridging visa and settling after the grant is a question for a lawyer.

If the person later leaves Australia, foreign owner obligations continue: the annual vacancy fee return, and the state absentee land tax rules for owners who do not usually live in Australia, such as Queensland's absentee surcharge and Victoria's absentee owner surcharge.

Frequently asked questions

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