Hamish Walker, a former local National MP, is speaking in the wake of the government announcing it’ll be easier for wealthy foreigners to invest in New Zealand from April 1.
"They’ve lowered the threshold from $15m to $5m or $10m, depending on what investment class they buy into, and they’ve lowered the amount of days they have to stay in NZ to qualify."
However, he adds, "some of my clients are obviously saying it doesn’t go far enough".
Walker’s confident the government will partially lift the foreign buyer ban soon, and believes a $5m threshold would be good.
The National Party campaigned at the last election to reverse the ban — introduced by the Labour government in 2018 to ensure Kiwis didn’t have to compete with better-heeled overseas buyers.
It proposed a $2m threshold, however in coalition talks with the New Zealand First party, the latter insisted the ban — which only has exemptions for Australians and Singaporeans — remain in place.
Walker says $2m was far too low a threshold for Queenstown, considering the high median value of properties here.
"And from my experience, too, these people aren’t buying homes worth $2m, $3m, $4m, anyway, they’re buying, you know, $7m, $8m plus."
He maintains if Queenstown can again attract the likes of American, European and Asian buyers, the resort will only benefit.
Walker’s only caveat is there are "appropriate protections in place"
