ISSUE
Friday, August 15, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 72
Both Prime Minister John Key and Housing Minister Nick Smith keep saying there is no housing crisis – yet all of Auckland, and the rest of New Zealand, knows there is one.
Tens of thousands of homes have been bought by offshore buyers in Auckland and there are crowds at the house auctions. This is a crisis as prices spiral out of rest of Kiwis.
And housing mortgage interest rates keep going up with four increases in the floating rate already this year.
Meanwhile the Reserve Bank is clamping down on first home buyers by forcing up the size of deposits.
New Zealand First will bring in a state agency land bank to get ahead of housing demand, releasing sections when needed at reasonable prices.
Foreigners should not be land banking, and speculating on New Zealand property.
Here is an example of actual foreign buying land banking in New Zealand, and it’s an Auckland case.
This is a lifestyle subdivision on the outskirts of Auckland, 22 lots all pre-sold to Asian buyers and more in the pipeline.
Kiwi buyers did not even get to see the land promoted, the other very ‘Asian aspect’ of this development is that every single lot sold for exactly $500,000.
When do you ever see all the lots in a subdivision going for the same price?
That does not happen and suggests that the IRD should be having a good look at what’s happening here.
What it points to is the possibility of money-laundering, GST avoidance, and cash top ups.
Already around the outskirts of Auckland there has been, according to developers who have contacted us, huge land banking by foreign buyers, just waiting for housing demand to come to them.
One of the major drivers behind the wave of foreign takeovers is the very favourable treatment overseas ownership confers.
Foreign owners have tax advantages not available to New Zealand buyers.
And tax is not covered by the Overseas Investment Office.
The interest rates they pay are a fraction of those charged in New Zealand.
No wonder foreign buyers enjoying low interest rates in their own country are flocking to buy in New Zealand – by paying no or minimal tax, they cannot lose and we cannot win.
Both Prime Minister John Key and Housing Minister Nick Smith keep saying there is no housing crisis – yet all of Auckland, and the rest of New Zealand, knows there is one. Tens of thousands of homes have been bought by offshore buyers in Auckland and there are crowds at the house auctions. This...
Both Prime Minister John Key and Housing Minister Nick Smith keep saying there is no housing crisis – yet all of Auckland, and the rest of New Zealand, knows there is one.
Tens of thousands of homes have been bought by offshore buyers in Auckland and there are crowds at the house auctions. This is a crisis as prices spiral out of rest of Kiwis.
And housing mortgage interest rates keep going up with four increases in the floating rate already this year.
Meanwhile the Reserve Bank is clamping down on first home buyers by forcing up the size of deposits.
New Zealand First will bring in a state agency land bank to get ahead of housing demand, releasing sections when needed at reasonable prices.
Foreigners should not be land banking, and speculating on New Zealand property.
Here is an example of actual foreign buying land banking in New Zealand, and it’s an Auckland case.
This is a lifestyle subdivision on the outskirts of Auckland, 22 lots all pre-sold to Asian buyers and more in the pipeline.
Kiwi buyers did not even get to see the land promoted, the other very ‘Asian aspect’ of this development is that every single lot sold for exactly $500,000.
When do you ever see all the lots in a subdivision going for the same price?
That does not happen and suggests that the IRD should be having a good look at what’s happening here.
What it points to is the possibility of money-laundering, GST avoidance, and cash top ups.
Already around the outskirts of Auckland there has been, according to developers who have contacted us, huge land banking by foreign buyers, just waiting for housing demand to come to them.
One of the major drivers behind the wave of foreign takeovers is the very favourable treatment overseas ownership confers.
Foreign owners have tax advantages not available to New Zealand buyers.
And tax is not covered by the Overseas Investment Office.
The interest rates they pay are a fraction of those charged in New Zealand.
No wonder foreign buyers enjoying low interest rates in their own country are flocking to buy in New Zealand – by paying no or minimal tax, they cannot lose and we cannot win.
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