The New Zealand government has banned the sale of existing homes to foreign buyers, saying New Zealanders were sick of being “tenants in our own land”.
Associate minister of finance David Parker said the ban would mean housing would become more affordable for locals, and supply would increase.
“We think the market for New Zealand homes and farms should be set by New Zealand buyers, not overseas buyers,” said Parker in an interview with the Guardian.
“That is to benefit New Zealanders who have their shoulder to the wheel of the New Zealand economy, pay tax here, have families here. We don’t think they should be outbid by wealthier people from overseas.”
In a speech to parliament on Wednesday he said: “We should not be tenants in our own land.”
Only a quarter of adults in New Zealand own their own home, compared with half in 1991, and in the last five years homeless figures have increased, with some New Zealanders forced to live in cars, garages and under bridges.
A report by the Economist in 2017 found New Zealand had the most unaffordable house prices in the world, with prices in Auckland climbing 75% in the last four years, although the market has cooled in recent months.
The ban applies to all nationalities, except buyers from Singapore and Australia.
Parker said in the last economic quarter 10% of homes in the popular Queenstown Lakes District (where PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel owns a multi-million dollar home) and 20% of homes in Auckland central were bought by foreigners.
A place to get away from it all
New Zealand has become a destination for Chinese, Australian and Asian buyers and has gained a reputation as a bolthole for the world’s wealthy, who view it as a safe haven from a potential nuclear conflict, the rise of terrorism and civil unrest, or simply as a place to get away from it all.
Land sales to foreign buyers boomed under the previous centre-right National government, with 465,863 hectares (1.16m acres) bought in 2016, an almost sixfold increase on the year before. That is the equivalent to 3.2% of farmland in a country of 4.7 million people.
According to the latest figures from statistics New Zealand, 3.3% of homes sold in the last quarter were to foreigners, with the bulk of the buyers Chinese, followed by Australians. Tax residents of the UK, US and Hong Kong were also among the biggest buyers of property.
Under the new legislation foreigners would still be able to purchase apartments in large-scale block developments off the plans, in an attempt to boost the overall housing stock for New Zealanders.
Parker says in places like the Queenstown Lakes, where US multi-millionaires Peter Thiel and Matt Lauer have purchased properties, the ban will induce construction companies to build more smaller, family-friendly homes.
However, under the new law Thiel would still be able to buy property in New Zealand. Thiel became a New Zealand citizen despite having spent only eight days in the country after he gained approval under the former government.
“We were in opposition at the time Peter Thiel was granted citizenship,” said Parker. “We can’t undo what has already been done. But that won’t happen in the future.”
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WANTED! ASIANS TO BUY UP CANADA! CHEAP! CANADA UP FOR SALE TO FIRST ASIAN BUYERS!
Gutless politicians are literally selling away their country. This has in fact been going on for the last 35 years going back to the “right-wing” Socred Party as well as liberal, conservative and left NDP governments. In fact, Asian investors have also driven up the cost of housing through speculation, and to where it is now unaffordable and difficult to find cheaper accommodation. The result has been more and more homeless.
This fact has been proven over and over, and one source has stated that wealthy Asians have invested over a trillion dollars in Canadian property.
https://globalnews.ca/news/3886743/quebec-immigrant-investor-program-vancouver/
The Chinese have been buying up real estate in Canada, in particular Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and Montreal, and everywhere in between. There are no rental vacancies in Vancouver because of the flood of immigrants. In fact, contrary to belief, “asylum seekers” and “refugees” arriving at Canada’s borders are not being turned away, Toronto for instance has allocated 11 million dollars to put up “refugees” in Toronto downtown hotels, such is the scarcity of housing. Homelessness is growing, and I have seen large homeless encampments even in small towns.
The mayor of Vancouver has repeatedly denied, that wealthy Asians are to blame for high real estate prices and lack of housing. But two former Vancouver mayors, Mike Harcourt and Art Phillips both beg to differ, as do two university professors from two different universities.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/03/31/canadian-houses-for-sale-jd-com_a_23399934/