Real Estate agents warned that even though they are technically exempt from new money laundering rules they could still get into trouble

It could get very interesting here.

Some anecdotal information like an agent who offered multiple properties to an overseas buyer given the instruction  ''I will take the lot" may well be true.

It seems an easy guess to think that it is simpler for a buyer to spend $x million of dirty money on several residentials than to have to go through the OIO on a larger single property.

And perhaps the REAA should provide translations into other languages to allow the individual agent to know exactly where he/she stands.

This is a timely article given the changes in Canadian visa regulations. 

."......New Zealand ... attractive for money laundering ......."

This does not qualify as NEWS !

Its common knowledge that something is wrong

Look at this :- An unemployed 22 year old paying cash for a $2,0 million home in Greenhithe ( My Neighbour)

There is enough smoke around to realise there is a fire somewhere.

RE Agents know exactly what is going on, and if they have not figured it out they are either plain dumb or criminally negligent  

Everyone in NZ holds the deep suspicion that all is not well with the rate of sales of property to supposed migrants who seemingly have deep pockets the size of the Taranaki basin . 

Its bollocks , and I dont know why we Kiwis risk our ethical reputation by turning a blind eye to it .

People who don’t play by the “rules” need to be ruthlessly stamped out and dealt with significant consequences.

It is unfair to those who respect and follow the rules; creates huge imbalances in society – driving up prices beyond what the local economy can afford.

Problem is the quality and character of the real estate industry tends to attract the bottom end, with minimal integrity (refer to the many cases).

Also non-residents must build new and not be able / allowed to buy existing stock.

Just though one would get there tuppins worth in.

Is NZ the biggest tax haven in the Pacific ?

I wonder if you could include quantitative easing here.  Since the collapse of Lehman both the Chinese, Americans, and now Japanese have been flooding their economies with vast amounts of new currency.  Most people who hold US dollars realise that in some way or another QE will eventually devalue their dollars. 

Worse still is that governments all over the world realise things are actually worse now than they were in 2008 but they’re now “locked and loaded” with bail in documents.   In New Zealand our bail in document is called the “Open banking Resolution” but the same thing exists in pretty much every other country with a western central bank.  The FDIC / bank of England bail in template has already been successfully tested in Cyprus where people lost more than 40% of their savings and there are still capital controls in place. 

In the context of all of that, little old New Zealand with all its green pasture and plentiful resource has virtually no restrictions on foreign purchases of land.  If I was a Saudi Prince or Chinese communist party official with billions of USD I’d be buying as much hard assets (including NZ) as I could too.   Who are the losers from all of this, well New Zealanders of course, the ones who have money in the bank, or who are misfortunate enough not to already own three or four houses.            

Welcome to New Zealand ..... 100% PURE Clean and Green

The rule is :-

Your money must be Green , and if its dirty we will clean it for you .

According to Gareth, we will need more old houses and no more farming!  I am wondering if he has checked it with Clint first?

https://blog.greens.org.nz/2014/02/12/we-can-make-history-in-2014/

Wonder whether the Investment Banks are advising and orchestrating these mass money movements from the money printing countries...

So why do foreigners stick their dirty money into our housing market - because they can!!! It is as simple as that.

We are mad!!

PS in our own little way we are a tax haven just like almost any other tax haven, and how is that - no capital gains tax, that is how

PS in our own little way we are a tax haven just like almost any other tax haven, and how is that - no capital gains tax, that is how

Kiwis are really clueless about how Capital Gains  Tax works

1) Histroically it has never brought asset  prices down

2) In fact house prices have increased in most cases when the tax was introduced 

3) If you tax the gains , you must allow the losses ( including capital losses )

4) Its a resentment tax that has always been brought in by left leaning Governments

5) It usually costs more to administer than it collects

6) There are too many loopholes that authorities have never been able to close making it a very hard tax to collect . Such as change of use of any asset from income to personal use

7) If you want less of something .... tax it .... do we really want fewer houses ?

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY :-

We already have Capital Gains tax in New Zealand

If you buy and sell more than 3 properties in 5 years , you are a deemed trader and subject to tax on the profit

The same goes for shares and any other asset class  

The issue is that people simply dont include these gains in their tax return

it's going to get even higher now that they can't go to Canada and some restriction to Australia

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-12/did-canada-just-pop-its-housin…

Front pages of some Asian papers are going on about how Canada is stopping the business visa program. Can we expect the dirty money that was going there to be added to the amounts that is already coming into NZ? Spoke to a Bayleys agent last week and he was convinced its all Chinese money that is getting out of the homeland before it is discovered.

Now, just why would any Chinese millionaire wish to move his funds into New Zealand, in fact anywhere.?

What would the temptation be to skip the land of his birth, the land of his forebears, for such a xenophobic lot as portrayed here.?

Why would they wish to pay over the odds to escape a booming economy, leave their factories, leave their homes, leave all their relatives behind and the fringe benefits, they so obviously enjoy?

Why does Canada not want them.?

Why.?

Not allowed to say.

Coincidentally this evening, I came across a write up of the guy that profiled the way people were/ still are using cayman island trusts to invest in London real estate to hide money from their governments.

http://blog.longreads.com/post/how-to-write-about-tax-havens-and-the-su…

"Property at risk from money launderers", Sunday Star Times, 16 Feb 2014. New regulations for banks risk driving black money into real estate. Available at www.amlAssurance.com (Resources/News)