18 hours ago
stuart munro
The rules should never have changed to allow foreign ownership. No benefit to NZ at all - massive housing inflation sucking wealth out through mortgages - no representative government could support it for a moment.
+11
20 hours ago
Just Some Advice
Every little bit helps for FHBs. Allowing overseas buyers access to our property market makes zero sense anyway, regardless of how much of an effect they have had.
+9
20 hours ago
MacGyver +
Why shouldn't they be blamed for the housing crisis? We didn't HAVE a crisis until they started buying up all the houses!
Show me the crisis in 1970. Didn't have one.
Show me the crisis in 1980. Wasn't one.
Show me the crisis in 1990. Not here.
When did it all start? When the government opened the doors and allowed them to start flooding in and buying up properties left, right and centre.
- 1 reply
+17
20 hours ago
Benjamin 2986
the guys above and 400 others own 800 million dollars worth of housing in new Zealand i wonder where they all came from
+9
20 hours ago
YouAreWrong
There's a certain unsaid theme that applies to all of those interviewed for this article...
+9
20 hours ago
Duke Aubergine
At current immigration rates we need about 96 new 2 bedroom houses PER DAY to keep up with immigration only.
+12
22 hours ago
Benjamin 2986
Instead, Li said the housing crisis was partly because "Auckland doesn't have enough density in the first place", and because a considerable amount of Kiwis were moving back to Auckland from overseas are you sure they are kiwis moving back to Auckland kiwis we all no for a fact that huge numbers off people year after year immigrants made the housing shortage its right there go and have a good walk around Auckland city and other parts of new Zealand and see the numbers 35000 people a year after year people need to lean that just because you come here get a visa your not counted as a kiwi because this is not your birth country then when someone like me a kiwi born here gos to buy a house in my birth country i will end up paying 300000 more dollars because i have to compete will all the other non kiwis trying to buy a home in my birth country its so unfair and in new Zealand we should not need density housing this is new Zealand not china
+13
22 hours ago
man of few words
I thought foreign buyers were being stopped from purchasing existing houses here? Only allowed to buy sections...please update me.
- 2 replies
+4
21 hours ago
pacifica
Not applicable yet, and it is extremely easy to get around with company, visa and trust setups.
+6
21 hours ago
Benjamin 2986
they cant buy existing housing but all this kiwi build thing is not means tested so they can buy them and all new build housing the people in the paper you see are huge investors they have about 800 million dollars off housing in this country and i bet not one of them was born in new Zealand just show how silly this country is becoming
+3
22 hours ago
Benjamin 2986
why are people from over seas buying housing here why dont they buy homes in there own country i no its a over packed mess if over seas buyers want to buy housing in new Zealand you come and rent here for 5 years and live then you can buy a home not buy heaps of housing and go back to china or where ever and the thing that gets me the most is can i buy homes in there country to own fair is fair why do they get the beast deal and we just sit back and miss out its this government has something to do with it i dont care about trading this and that this is owl country new Zealand to be a new Zealander you have to be born here the housing shortage is from people investors from over seas and its from huge numbers off immigration and if its not whats it from there wheres the real paper work to show me the numbers i bet heaps of land and homes and owned from non born kiwis new Zealanders i think ban it all together if you dont live here you dont buy thats fair
+5
22 hours ago
TeHammer
What percentage of our current housing stock, and land, is owned by overseas investors? Maybe the market has slowed as properties become less available or affordable...
+3
22 hours ago
GCSB-Spies
"Peter Young, a 20-year-old real estate agent at Barfoot and Thompson...." Must be a stressful job, it has aged him prematurely.
- 2 replies
+11
21 hours ago
mw289913
It says he has worked at Barfoot & Thompson for 20 years, not that he is 20 years old.
- 1 reply
-1
21 hours ago
JohnBarron
Maybe beneath the photo, but Not in the first sentence it doesn’t!
+8
23 hours ago
8RURU8
Good.
+6
23 hours ago
Kiwisareace
But even if it falls 99% there are still too many. Why should Kiwis miss out to overseas buyers when we cannot buy in China?
+19
23 hours ago
Gissie
Of course these numbers don’t count money channeled through the short term students. The trusts we can not find out who owns. The companies we cannot check who is the actual owner.
But then of course we believe a real estate agent...
+11
24 hours ago
Gissie
What a joke. When the Labour Party counted foreign sounding names the real estate industry screamed there was no problem. When the rules changed in 2015 at the insistence of the PRC the same voices claimed the market would crash without foreign buyers. Now they want to stop them the same voices claim they make no difference so just leave it.
I guess the story is the real estate industry continually show us why we all find them untrustworthy.
+9
1 day ago
Jase51
Overseas buying fell 18mths ago when the banks stopped offering finance to non residents. Its really that simple, the problem had gone by the time Labour won the election and we will never know how big a problem it was and no we don't need any new laws
-12
1 day ago
Stephen Wallace
I’m so sick of all the people say I can’t afford a home of my own.
I’m a single guy in his 50s now and have work all my life to purchase my own home which I have.
I know people who tell me I’m lucky to have my home but luck has very little to do with it.
Go with out holiday and work over time and save hard and you will get their too like I did.
Young people don’t know how to save or give up nights out or shopping each day or walk to work instead of driving.
New Zealanders need to get of their bums and stop blaming others for their poor decisions and how they spend their money.
- 6 replies
-16
23 hours ago
Lord Hindsight
And how long ago did you buy a house?
- 2 replies
+7
22 hours ago
TeHammer
Back when they cost two pebbles, and 4 rocks, by the sound of it!
+7
21 hours ago
Nic Johnson
2016 on the last visit from the people’s republic.
+6
21 hours ago
Nic Johnson
‘I’m so sick of all the people sayING THAT I can’t afford a home of my own.
I’m a single guy in his 50s now and have workED all my life to purchase my own home which I NOW have.
Just been teaching my English as a foreign language class and thought I would amend your diction.. Adjustments in capitals..
- 2 replies
+3
21 hours ago
Kiwidna
PETtee
0
20 hours ago
Nic Johnson
Kiwidna.. just highlighting the foreign buyer issue...
+5
1 day ago
lain_nz
all 3 per cent of it , wake up
- 1 reply
-6
23 hours ago
Rasco
If you take that as gospel but there is a whole 20% not properly accounted for, where much more will be hidden
+10
1 day ago
Steve3667
So the 97% of NZ buyers in no way had anything to with rising property values. . Not only property values got inflated . . So were the real stats .
-6
1 day ago
megadarth
The people to be pointing the finger of blame at are the real estate agents themselves. They’re the ones who have been talking up the market for years, it’s pretty shameless really. The main stream media are just as complicit, they’ve been stoking the fires as well, why, because real estate companies spend a crap-load advertising in their publications.
- 3 replies
+21
1 day ago
jaks thoughts
Your right there when we were looking at houses the difference between a 25 year old house and a new build was about 50k .
Some times the new build was cheaper.
Ok with a older house you might get 100 square meters more land.
The real estate agents didn’t like it when I said they need to drop 100k of the price.
+10
20 hours ago
MacGyver +
They're also the ones that have special websites touting NZ properties and houses to china ONLY. Actually targetting chinese buyers. This should be an act of treason and those responsible charged accordingly. It's underhanded and only serves one purpose - to fill the pockets of the real estate agents.
+6
18 hours ago
stuart munro
Natural really - no-one buys the Herald for the journalism. Bet real estate is their largest advertiser by far.
+4
1 day ago
yobwoc
So this tells me that it's the Banks and always is the Banks that create the loose environment so people can borrow money so easily to re-invest into income earning property. What about raising the interest rates to a happy median level so that both investor and borrower can survive or is that too hard an ask and beyond the ability of tertiary educated people to see? What we have had for a long while now s cheap money. Start paying rates so people don't feel the need to HAVE to invest in property to get a reasonable return and you will see more stability in the market. The Reserve Bank - does it have the power and is this their department?
- 1 reply
+3
24 hours ago
Gissie
I think you will find the real estate industry is trying to divert the mess away from them to the banks. The banks may have an input but no foreign investor can get a loan at all as overseas income cannot be counted. Just agents trying to show they care about something apart from the new car and boat.
+5
1 day ago
Turbo555
Because there is nothing left to buy.
+18
1 day ago
Agriiview
Good news.
+14
1 day ago
RobbieWgtn
There's no NZ benefit for the level of overseas investment in residential housing to be more than zero. Anything more only inflates prices for locals, thats why most of the other countries buying here don't permit it themselves.
No sympathy for the property ticket clippers, they couldn't care less about NZ, it's all for their own pockets
- 4 replies
+32
24 hours ago
Jase51
never thought about a house on the Gold coast? because if you had that why shld Oz offer any of us the right to buy a house there if we have such laws here
- 1 reply
-6
20 hours ago
RobbieWgtn
NZ/Labour has already excepted Oz from foreign buyer rules as reciprocal arrangement
+4
21 hours ago
Wingman
Wrong!
- 1 reply
-2
20 hours ago
RobbieWgtn
Well, that's much clearer now, thanks
+1
1 day ago
Icehouse
I personally feel something had to happen as the current climate is not sustainable, property investors are also the landlords and they are very poor landlords. They do not do maintenance and charge exorbitant rents, someone who lives overseas and owns several properties has no emotional connection to the property or the tenants.
In New Zealand we deserve better, we live in the most beautiful country in the world. People should be able to buy a house in their own country, renters should only pay a percentage of their income on rent allowing them to spend time with their families going to shows, movies, overseas trips etc not tied to a substandard property owned by a faceless offshore investor.
People should live in a house with a reasonable rent and it should be properly maintained. I deal with clients living in houses where the stove hasn't worked for two months, damp, mouldy houses where maintenance is not carried out and it is not isolated cases, I see it more regularly.
The foreign investors are not doing a good job of managing the private sector. Substandard houses might be acceptable in their third world country but not in a first world affluent country like New Zealand. Something needs to change and fast.
+20
1 day ago
Peter Johnson
What a load of self serving BS from Real Estate Speculators and their associated industry - time to put a total STOP to Non New Zealand Citizens owning ANY property in New Zealand. So called offshore "Investment" is not an "investment" for New Zealander's.
- 2 replies
+29
1 day ago
daveyarmstrong
What astounds me is why the current government has not already done this.People need to put pressure on them to ban foreign investment as from tomorrow.
+18
21 hours ago
Wingman
Read the FACTS...
-4
1 day ago
Fungoolie
John Key's investor mates. Done nothing but created speculation in our housing sector and then cashed in. Canada, Australia, UK all have suffered the same MO.
+16
1 day ago
Texas11
it was only 3% anyway
and 1.5% are aussies that were buying from overseas.just more spin from winstons elite .
once construction drys up everything else follows.
-13
1 day ago
Rasco
Oh so we have an admission that foreign buyers, clearly mostly Chinese DID skew the market and now they have been called back by tightening of capital flight from China, we should no longer worry about them. Yeah right!!They have left this country with unsustainably high house prices and resulting fall in prices will hurt many who have purchased recently for the first time.
They still need barring so that this cannot be repeated.
Scales are slowly falling from the eyes of those who refused to see this was happening, the way back down could be messy.
I hope the leeches featured in this article learn a good lesson from it, and maybe go do something productive.
+26
1 day ago
daveyarmstrong
These are just the same lies that were propagated 3 years ago by the John Key government.Get rid of foreign investors out of our housing market, and if they are as inconsequential as claimed no one will notice a thing.
But of course anyone with the slightest bit of gumption knows that in any market with an inflexible supply like property, a small % increase in demand will result in a massive increase in prices especially when that demand is loaded with laundered money that must be gone by tomorrow no matter the cost.
+14
1 day ago
samuel
"Real estate agent". "Property coach". "Consultancy company".
None of these people are making things, growing things, exporting things, or doing anything except clip the ticket on the money-go-round. If they all went on strike tomorrow it wouldn't matter a damn.
Thank goodness the rort is slowing down, even if not yet over.
- 2 replies
+44
1 day ago
Nic Johnson
And the report that they refer to in the article as ‘the latest’ is data that stops 15 months ago. Too many vested interests with voices that are not benefitting New Zealanders.
- 1 reply
+21
22 hours ago
Nic Johnson
I forgot to ask earlier - ‘overseas housebuyers fall’.
Where did they fall? If they’re not tourists, do we really want to pick them up?
+2
1 day ago
ijorgeb
What a surprise!!
+20
