At the last election, National campaigned on a $2m threshold for overseas buyers — currently only Aussies and Singaporeans are exempt from the ban introduced by the previous Labour government in 2018 — but kept the ban on as part of its coalition agreement with New Zealand First.
Visiting Queenstown this week, James Meager, the first South Island Minister, agrees high-net-worth foreigners "bring a lot of investment and opportunities, and they don’t really have a big physical footprint in terms of, you know, strains on resources or infrastructure".
"I’d be very surprised if any of these people are coming here and using the public health system, anything like that.
"So we campaigned on the $2m [threshold], couldn’t get that across the line."
He says Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s "very public" about looking at that.
"It’s something we continue to work on in government, and I think it’s something if we can’t get across the line in this government, we will certainly campaign on."
Meager says even if it’s a higher limit like $5m for places like Queenstown, "I think people will accept that".
"Look at the kind of people who are looking to move here.
"I mean, [Hollywood actor] Jason Momoa basically lives here, right?
"But wouldn’t it be fantastic to have him base himself in and out of Queenstown, flies internationally, brings in so much business and marketing and commerce from his movies and his franchises.
"I think it makes sense, and you can do it in a way which doesn’t put pressure on the housing for the workers and for the people who have lived here for 50 years and actually want to be able to have a home."
Meanwhile, Meager’s acutely aware of the limitations with Queenstown’s current hospital and how, for example, a high proportion of local women give birth out of town — last year, there were 396 births outside Queenstown Lakes/Central Otago.
While in Queenstown he visited friends who’d had a baby five weeks ago, who initially went to Invercargill to get ready.
Things didn’t move as quickly as they thought, so they returned to the resort.
"Then all of a sudden away she went, and then it was a helicopter trip to Dunedin because Invercargill’s full.
"And then that meant [the parents] were actually separated for the birth."
Meager says that "brings home the idea that for a place like Queenstown, that’s probably not ideal".
"There’s a very low threshold in the medical profession here for saying, if it even looks like you’re going to get in trouble, we’ll call a helicopter in, and that’s not ideal because it’s stressful, it’s time, it’s costs."
Meager says the Health Minister’s aware of it and working on it — "I know there are proposals from a couple of entities around bringing private capital in and just getting a hospital up and running and maybe contract everything out to [the] public [system]".
"I think we can get some solutions in the next few years."
Supports our regional deal
James Meager says he supports the proposal for a regional deal the Queenstown Lakes, Central Otago and Otago Regional councils have put to the government, describing it as "very good".
Under a regional deal, the government works with councils to improve infrastructure, which can include public transport and health facilities — in this case a mass transit Queenstown cable car and a base hospital.
The government’s yet to approve any, but in the South Island "Queenstown and West Coast seem to be well on track", Meager says.
