Foreign buyer ban shouldn't go ahead – REINZ

New figures show that 3% of all NZ house transfers have gone to foreigners

By Krizzel Canlas

08 Jun 2018

New figures from Statistics New Zealand confirm that it’s not worth going ahead with a blanket ban on foreign home buyers across New Zealand, according to Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) chief executive Bindi Norwell.

Statistics NZ released a report on June 7 suggesting that the March quarter saw only 3.3% of all New Zealand home transfers going to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or resident visas.

“These figures are very close to the numbers that REINZ released at the back-end of 2017 which indicated that only 3.8% of sales were to offshore buyers,” Norwell said. “The only areas in New Zealand where there is a significant proportion of sales to made to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenships or resident visas are Auckland and Queenstown Lakes with 7.3% and 9.7% of sales respectively.”

Norwell also pointed to Stats NZ’s report, which showed that 19% of sales in the Waitemata Board in the March quarter were to offshore buyers. According to her, this is only roughly 85 sales, and if these 85 were sold to local buyers or investors it would still be unlikely to have a significant impact the overall market.

“As we outlined in our submission to the Select Committee, if foreign buyers are banned from purchasing property in New Zealand, it could significantly impact development funding,” she said. “This would, therefore, impact supply and potentially see prices increasing – the exact opposite effect the ban is seeking to have.”