Wealthy foreigners with a 'golden visa' will once again be allowed to purchase a luxury home in a new exemption to the foreign home buyers ban.
The decision concludes months of negotiations between National and New Zealand First, which had helped introduce the original ban alongside Labour in 2018.
Under the change, revealed by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Monday afternoon, holders of the Active Investor Plus visa will be permitted to buy or build one residential property valued at a minimum of $5 million.
“It’s a happy compromise,” Luxon said.
“We’re doing everything to make sure that it’s not just frothy speculative ... driving a property market. It’s actually genuinely about supporting more investment which drives more jobs.”
NZ First leader Winston Peters posted on social media, stating that the Government had ensured strict limitations around the policy, including prohibitions on the purchase of rural, farm, and sensitive land.
Peters said the $5m threshold excluded more than 99% of homes on the market, “protecting the vast majority from sale to foreigners”.
“This is a common sense move that provides a balance between protecting New Zealand’s housing market supply and affordability, and ensuring we allow people who are wanting to invest millions of dollars into our economy to rightly be able to own a home and live in it when they are here.”
Labour and the Greens have criticised the move, describing it as the Government “rolling out the red carpet” for ultra-wealthy overseas investors.
