Foreign men of property move in

OVERSEAS home buyers may be crowding locals out of the market.

At backyard barbecues during the weekend, it's a fair bet conversations turned to the political panic-button topics of interest rates, immigration and property prices.

Disconcertingly for the Federal Government in an election year, the community is starting to notice a nexus, and it borders on xenophobia.

Anecdotes abound about cashed-up Chinese investors "land banking" by collecting houses, only to leave them vacant and desperate first home buyers repeatedly being beaten at auctions by foreign bidders.

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