New Ways to Increase Investment through Immigration Proposed

With the danger of double dip recession looming in the horizon, two Senators have proposed a bill to provide residence visas to foreign nationals that spend at least $500,000 to purchase properties in the United States.

The proposed bill crosses party lines, as Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York and Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, and aims to increase foreign investment in the US economy. This legislation aims to augment the short fall of home purchases by American who opt to sit out the recession instead of investing in properties to spur growth.

Currently, foreign nationals, mainly Chinese and Canadian purchasers, have steadily increased the number of properties bought in key property market areas such as South Florida, Southern California, Arizona and other markets. These investors have taken advantage in the sharp price falls of US homes and the slowdown of demand from the local American market. Another favorable condition is the higher value of their home currencies pegged against the US greenback.

Under the proposed plan, visas would be provided to individual foreigners who make cash investments totaling half a million dollars on residential real estate, be it a house, a condominium or a townhouse. The investors can sink the entire amount in one home or spend a minimum of $250,000 on a house and invest others in commercial real estate properties.

This program would complement other visa programs that require investments in new businesses that would create new jobs. It is expected that the large inventory of oversupplied homes would be bought by these investors, in lieu of Americans worried about their money and opting to hold off investments until the market fully recovers.

Overall, foreign buyers spent around $82 billion in US in real estate purchases for the year ending in March. This was a big jump from the $66 billion reported for the previous year. Foreign purchasers had a 5.5% market share in Miami while 4.3% of all home purchases in Phoenix were bought by foreigners in July, according to sources.

The visa package would allow the purchaser to enter, together with their dependents and spouse, the United States. They would not be allowed to work though without the required work visa and the purchase a home visa would be cancelled once the property they bought with the visa is sold to a third party.

The visa program would be separate and distinct from current programs to prevent any displacement of other visa applicants. There would be no quotas for this new home purchase visa program.

For a more comprehensive discussion on property investments, do visit us at US Bill Proposes Visas for People Spending 500000 or more on a House. Please visit the author's site The Property Community.

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