So, you cannot afford land in India? Fear not, Australia beckons. This has been the mantra for those Indians who have done well professionally Down Under.
Punjabis are buying into the Australian dream
MELBOURNE: So, you cannot afford land in India? Fear not, Australia beckons.
This has been the mantra for those Indians who have done well professionally Down Under. Punjabis, in particular, have been on a roll buying land in Australia and making the most of it.
In 1997, Kashmira Singh sold 1.5 acres of his land in Amritsar for Rs6 lakh to fund his young son Dalbir Singh’s education in Australia. The little boy repaid the gesture in a decade by gifting his dad 300 acres in Australia.
Today, Dalbir owns a fleet of taxis and is doing well for himself He lives in a spacious three-bed room bungalow in the sprawling northern suburb of Craigieburn.
Last year, Dalbir invited his parents to Melbourne and gifted his father the land. Needless to add, Kashmira was nonplussed.
Or take the case of Jai Kirat Singh Gill of Kapurthala district who came to Melbourne over a decade ago to study agriculture at La Trobe University. After his doctorate, he joined the university as senior scientist where he continues his research in soil management.
Gill bought a home on Wungan Street near Macleod Station and last year acquired 200 acres of agricultural land 140 miles away from Melbourne. “Through modern farming techniques, I made good money. While other farmers got a profit of 100 Australian dollars per tonne of yield, I made twice as much,” he says.
By the end of the day, there is more land to be got in Australia at cheaper prices than Punjab.
“In Australia, areas with good rainfall fetch 2,000 dollars an acre while this is 1,500 dollars in the case of those with average rainfall. Below average is available at 1,000 dollars an acre,” Gill says.
Hence, an acre Down Under is in the range of Rs40,000-80,000 compared to Rs50 lakh to Rs3 crore back home in Punjab. Further, most of the agricultural land in Australia is in the hands of private farmers which leaves the government out of the picture. All deals are done through property agents.
The buyer then gets the go-ahead from local government authorities to acquire the land which is done within a month. One needs a business visa to complete the procedures and this can then be upgraded to ‘permanent residence’ visa after the person concerned gets into regular farming.
The other option is to lease out the land to sheep farm owners. They offer 50 pence per sheep each week to let their herd graze on the rented land. In other words, a person could make 2,000 dollars with 4,000 sheep each week or a staggering 96,000 dollars annually.
The introduction of direct flights between Amritsar and Melbourne has only made the Punjabis dream of buying land in Australia so much easier.
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