Shaolin pays A$4m to close land deal in Australia
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E-mail China Daily, February 26, 2015
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Shi Yongxin, the abbot of China's Shaolin Temple. |
China's Shaolin Temple has paid A$4.162 million to a southeastern coastal city in Australia's New South Wales state, closing an outstanding land purchase deal, abc.net.au reported.
Shi Yongxin, abbot in charge of the Shaolin Temple, personally presented the final payment to Joanna Gash, mayor of Shoalhaven city, for the Comberton Grange property at Falls Creek.
A complex project that includes a temple, hotels and a golf course is expected to be built, according to an application sent to the planning department of the NSW government, local Chinese media wesydney.com.au said.
"Shaolin is not a business, it is not a developer. It carries out many charitable projects," said Patrick Pang, a representative of the Shaolin Foundation during the dealing process.
Pang has been working since the development was first mooted in 2006.
The deal is not the first time the 1,500-year-old birthplace of kung fu has been involved in commercial activities.
Since 2010, the temple has had an online social media presence on Twitter-like Sina Weibo, and now boasts more than 77,000 followers. There is also a gaming app being developed to teach users kung fu on their mobile phones.
Shaolin-brand medical books are sold on Taobao.com, backed by China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd, and Buddhist disciples can now avoid the trek up Songshan mountain by paying to study at Shaolin via an Internet correspondence course.
Abbot Shi, one of the first Chinese monks to gain an MBA, once said Shaolin's business interests have been set up to support and preserve its ancient culture.
"We have entered a commercialized society ... so people tend to evaluate things from the angle of commercialization," said Shi. "But you need to look at what is behind the business practice. Some people do business so they can survive, and some do it to seek fortune. Shaolin Temple just wants to survive, to practice Buddhism".
Australia plans to charge fees to foreign nationals buying residential property and fine those who break foreign investment laws, in an attempt to improve housing affordability amid some of the world's highest property prices.
The scheme could raise about A$200 million a year by charging foreign home-buyers A$5,000 for properties valued under A$1 million and an additional A$10,000 for every additional A$1 million, Treasurer Joe Hockey said on Wednesday.
Hockey said a register of foreign nationals buying real estate would be established and those who break the law would face a fine up to a quarter of the value of the property and could be forced to sell.
Australian property has long been a popular choice for Chinese money, but the flow of investment appears to have accelerated.
Australia's foreign investment review board says China was the No.1 source of foreign capital investment in real estate in 2013, approving nearly A$6 billion ($5.58 billion) of investment, up 41 percent from a year ago.
Chinese investors are forecast to spend $20 billion on offshore property this year, up 21 percent on 2014 as more domestic real estate developers and insurers internationalise their holdings.
More wealthy Chinese are moving their money out of China to invest in Australia's property market as a corruption crackdown in the world's second biggest economy gathers momentum, property consultants and lawyers said.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the fees and fines will bring Australia into line with other countries and regions like Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand, and will enforce a set of rules already in place but never enforced.
"The idea is not to deter foreign investment, the idea is to ensure that the rules are enforced," Abbott told reporters.
Australia's two biggest cities Sydney and Melbourne, home to a third of the country's 23.6 million population, rank in the world's six least affordable places to buy a home, according to US urban planning researcher Demographia.
Prices in Sydney rose more than 13 percent in the year to October, prompting many media reports of foreigners snapping up properties.
A rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia earlier this month added to concerns that the country's high residential property prices will continue to rise.
Treasurer Joe Hockey added that foreign ownership of real estate "raises significant issues ranging from national security to potential criminal activity, money laundering and a range of other things".
