New Zealand bans sales of homes to most foreigners - Sensationalist Headlines

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-45199034 New Zealand's parliament has banned many foreigners from buying existing homes in the country - a move aimed at making properties more affordable. The ban only applies to non- residents. Australians and Singaporeans are exempt because of free-trade deals. New Zealand is facing a housing affordability crisis which has left home ownership out of reach for many. Low interest rates, limited housing stock and immigration have driven up prices in recent years. only non-residents are affected by the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill, which was passed in a 63-57 vote on Wednesday. They are now banned from purchasing most types of homes - but they will be able to make limited investments in new apartments in large developments. Foreigners with residency status in New Zealand - as well as non-resident Australian and Singaporean nationals - are not affected by the ban. New Zealand's Trade and Economic Development Minister David Parker described the passage of the bill as a "significant milestone". "This government believes that New Zealanders should not be outbid by wealthier foreign buyers," he said. "Whether it's a beautiful lakeside or ocean-front estate, or a modest suburban house, this law ensures that the market for our homes is set in New Zealand, not on the international market." But opponents said the ban was unnecessary and would not fix any problem. Foreign ownership and a housing shortage in New Zealand's bigger cities were prominent issues in the run-up to last year's election, which saw the end of nine years of rule by the conservative National Party. New Zealand now has a centre-left coalition government led by Labour's Jacinda Ardern, the country's youngest female leader. The ban follows fears that overseas buyers of homes were putting too much pressure on infrastructure and house prices. Chinese investors have been among the biggest and most active offshore buyers of property in the New Zealand market. Also, some wealthy Americans - like Silicon Valley tech billionaire Peter Thiel - have become New Zealand citizens or have bought property in the country. Average prices in New Zealand have risen more than 60% in the past 10 years, while in Auckland - the country's largest city - they have almost doubled. However, the housing market has somewhat cooled in recent months. In July, the median price for residential property nationwide was NZ$550,000 ($360,500; £284,000), according to data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand. In June, about 82% of houses were bought by New Zealand's citizens or residents, with fewer than 3% of homes going to foreigners.

"The ban only applies to non-residents." Key words. Chinese investors buy properties in countries they've never set foot in and flip them at insanely inflated prices. Glad someone is putting a stop to this.

Sounds like racist nationalism at first glance but it's actually a really sensible move that every country should probably take. Chinese investors love fucking up the housing markets of other countries.

Sounds reasonable to me. If you're going to buy residential property to live in there, you might as well be living there. Those assets can be used better this way than by sitting there being artificially inflated and then resold.

This is refreshing after 9 years of National ignoring the housing crisis and telling everyone there is no problem.

I'm glad the current government actually acknowledged there's a housing problem lol

foreigners who make up 3% of new sales are clearly what's trashing the auckland housing market, and not the lack of housing relative to massive population surges. at least this will provide some economic data, i've heard calls for it from other cities but iirc no one has had the balls to try it.

I'll take anything at this point. Weve also got wealthier people buying homes purely to rent out at a price higher than the mortgage costs. Basically if you cant put a deposit together you'll be paying more.

Good. Foreign real estate investment is a big problem since they can just sit on the properties and not sell them until someone buys them for an absurdly inflated price. The next step New Zealand and other countries taking actual steps to curb foreign real estate investment, is to use eminent domain and force the investors to sell an actually fair market value so the damage already done can be reversed.

Vancouver & the west coast could use something like this

Without changing other policy, auckland is going to keep getting worse since the population growth isn't likely to stop. I'd be pretty annoyed myself at this tiny measure. Hell, when it comes to flipping real estate. There's a reason that that's profitable, and it's because housing prices are greatly outpacing inflation. Getting mad at the flipping, to me, is getting mad at a symptom rather than the underlying disease.

This in Australia please

I think most people overestimate the influence that foreign investment has on the housing market. I'd bet that most of the issue arises from affluent local investors.

True. A huge problem is middle class boomers buying a few rental properties leaving none for the younger generation.

And what's worse is that the government subsidises any interest on those properties that isn't made back by rental income on the property. Which makes it an insanely good investment to buy a second property and let the tax payers cover the costs of interest on it so that you can sell it for a large profit later. It's the safest investment ever for those that can afford it and it completely fucks the rest of society over.

now do this here please

I don’t know if this will be the answer they want but I am very much for such developments. Much more than governments opening their arms wide for easy foreign cash by selling property then driving up anti-foreigner sentiment. You can’t have the cake and eat it too.

How 'bout state-regulated land pricing

Would love to see whether or not China makes a fragile manchild response to this.

i'd like this here as well please

Australians and Singaporeans are exempt because of free-trade deals. Thanks NZ bros

Yep. Jacinda Ardern is about as far away from nationalist as you can get, but she made some convincing arguments for why immigration had to be cut down in order to reduce housing prices and increase availability during her debate with Bill English. I don't tend to be anti-immigration, but in NZ's case, I completely understand what they're getting at. Why did I watch a Prime Ministerial debate for a country with a population less than the capital of my own? Who knows, but I think Jacinda is wonderful.

We could certainly stand to have someone a little more like her in our own home office.