Australia Foreign Investment Fees Set To Double

In Short

The Situation: The Australian Government has doubled Foreign Investment Review Board ("FIRB") application fees payable by investors who are required to seek approval under the Foreign Investments and Takeovers Act 1975 (Cth) ("FATA") before investing in Australia. The changes take effect on 29 July 2022.

The Result: The changes mean that FIRB application fees for all transaction types will double, with the maximum fee being set at $1.045 million (for transactions worth more than $2 billion, agricultural land deals above $80 million, and residential land proposals of more than $40 million).

Looking Ahead: These increases in fees are material; while we expect that, on larger transactions, the material increases will be easily absorbed within overall deal costs, on smaller, mid-market or highly uncertain deals, the increased fees may cause some level of investor concern.