New Zealand to ban expats from purchasing property

Would-be expats heading to New Zealand may find they’re banned from buying a home.

Due to a spate of mega-rich expats buying up luxury properties as a hedge against a popular doomsday scenario, newly arrived expatriates may find their plans to buy property stymied by law. New Zealand’s attraction as a safe haven in which to survive a coming apocalypse is almost a cliché in present times, but increasing numbers of millionaires and billionaires seem to be taking no chances. Their actions have pushed up property prices as a whole in favoured regions, making it almost impossible for everyday New Zealand citizens to get on the property ladder.

Whether the apocalypse is fake news or not, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is taking the country’s major real estate crisis seriously enough to consider banning expats from owning their own homes. Her supporters believe such a ban would help damp down soaring property prices and would coincide with government plans to build 100,000 affordable units over the next ten years. The plan is also intended to boost a slump in New Zealand’s construction industry and help with its infrastructure and zoning woes. The idea of a ban was first mooted some years back in a far stricter form, with this latest version still allowing foreigners to purchase apartments in multi-storey blocks built in large developments. Existing homes both in cites and rural areas will be off-limits to expats, but those from Australia and Singapore will be exempt from the ban due to free trade rules between the three countries.

According to New Zealand’s minister for trade and economic development, the ban isn’t simply about house prices, it’s about the birthright of all Kiwi citizens being sabotaged by ultra-wealthy expats able to outbid local purchasers. The Chinese are the busiest upscale property hunters and buyers, followed by Australians, Britons and residents of Hong Kong, many of whom are also Chinese. However, since the beginning of the Trump presidency, an increasing number of American millionaires have bought boltholes against the possibility the extraordinary shift in US policy will result in nuclear war. The majority of investors are settling in or near Queenstown on South Island, a renowned area of spectacular natural beauty even the Kiwi middle classes can’t afford to buy into.