19Purchase or ownership of land or dwelling‑houses

19 Purchase or ownership of land or dwelling‑houses

(1) A reference in this Act other than section 17 to the purchase or ownership by a person of land or of an undivided share in land shall be read as a reference to the purchase or ownership, as the case may be, by the person, otherwise than as a trustee, of an approved interest in the land or in an undivided share in the land. (2) A reference in this Act to the purchase or ownership of a dwelling‑house by a person shall: (a) in the case of a dwelling‑house not being a dwelling‑house of a kind commonly known as a flat or home unit, be read as a reference to the purchase or ownership, as the case may be, by the person, otherwise than as a trustee, of the land on which the dwelling‑house is erected; and (b) in the case of a dwelling‑house being a dwelling‑house of a kind commonly known as a flat or home unit, be read as a reference to the purchase or ownership, as the case may be, by the person, otherwise than as a trustee, of: (i) an approved interest in the flat or home unit in pursuance of a law of a State or internal Territory that enables the holding or enjoyment by different persons of proprietary rights in respect of different flats or home units contained in the one building; (ii) shares in the capital of a company that is the owner of the land on which the building containing the flat or home unit is erected, being shares that entitle the holder to a right of occupancy (whether under a lease or otherwise) in respect of the flat or home unit; or (iii) if the person is the owner of an undivided share in the land on which the building containing the flat or home unit is erected and, by virtue of an agreement between the person and all the other owners of undivided shares in that land, the person is entitled to a right of occupancy in respect of the flat or home unit—the undivided share in that land of the person. (3) For the purposes of this section: (a) the purchase of an interest in land, in an undivided share in land or in a flat or home unit, being an interest that, together with an interest already owned by the purchaser or his or her spouse, or by both of those persons, constitutes an approved interest in the land, in an undivided share in the land or in the flat or home unit, as the case may be, shall be deemed to be the purchase of such an approved interest; and (b) the purchase of an interest in shares in the capital of a company, being shares that entitle the holder to a right of occupancy in respect of a flat or home unit, shall, if all other interests in those shares are already owned by the purchaser or his or her spouse, or by both of those persons, be deemed to be the purchase of those shares. (4) For the purposes of this section: (a) the purchase or ownership of an approved interest in land by a person (in this subsection referred to as the relevant person) jointly with another person; or (b) the purchase or ownership of an undivided share in an approved interest in land by a person (in this subsection also referred to as the relevant person); being land in respect of which the relevant person is entitled to a right of occupancy, shall, if the Secretary in his discretion so determines, be treated as if it were the purchase or ownership, as the case may be, of that approved interest in the land by the relevant person.