Overseas house buyer activity is concentrated in places like Auckland and Queenstown

Finally a concrete statistic! What absolute conniving crooks the National party were.

Knock Knock...Simon Says.....We goofed up again on overseas buyer data......(Though whole world was talking about it :)

The previous Government said that nationally overseas buyers were around 3% (as per the above figures). However, what they never said was that overseas buyers were concentrated to a few places. If 20% of buyers are overseas for central Auckland that will definitely affect the market.

Another thing that National denied was the quality of Steel from China but .............though everyone knew what is happening but the National Bosses

NZTA knew about substandard Chinese steel, emails show :

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/06/nzta-knew-about-subs….

Question to be asked now is : 9 years good enough time for National to sell NZ and just imagine what would have happened if national would have got power again.

Thank WP :)

Wait! moving forward.. 20% of them will be for sale shortly..
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/chinese-debt-a-major-risk-t…

Obviously I am referring to the central AKL figure David...rolls eyes

From table 6 it can be concluded that: for at least 55% of total purchases, at least one non-exempt party stated no overseas tax residences.

I'm still in the dark.

The COLs foreign buyer ban was supposed to stop this. Oh wait that's right there's still no foreign buyer ban. The can is being kicked down the road.

Well COL Bill English got rinsed for ignoring public sentiment and if you don't implement this ban you will also get rinsed.at the next election.

Christ. You wouldn't want to be long on central suburbs property right now would you. Once that foreign buyer ban comes in 20% of buyers are going to disappear into the night.

Might find that fibro shitbox ain't worth money laundered millions after all.

I wasn't aware that we now have reliable data about foreign ownership. How and When is this new data being collected?
Thanks

Would be interesting to know the net % of sales to foreigners (along with the concrete number owned obviously). A number like 3% might not sound like much but if they aren't selling their properties as much as they are buying them that's a sizable chunk getting transferred to foreign ownership every year.

The data tells us about land transfers. They might necessarily not be sales and could be title transfers from syndicates ( which we all know exist but in denial, especially the syndicates buying on foreign buyer's behalf) to foreign buyers before the ban. The property sale to the syndicate might have taken place ages ago, the transfer is taking place now to the actual buyer . This will surely show up as a spike on the data radar

Labor is not going to implement the foreign buyer ban. if they do, they will water it down so much that it'd mean anything. Politicians are our friend only when they are not in power like Simon Bridges :)

Whoa !! On closer look at the data if you filter by people eligible to buy after the foreign buyer ban which are

Atleast one Citizen, Atleast one Nz resident(but no citizens, Au Australia, NZ New Zealand, Mixture of NZ tax residents and non residents,

These groups constitute only 44% of total sales !! Rest 56% foreign buyers?

This is as per data shared by David

One in four people in Auckland were born in North Asia. Welcome to South East Asia folks. There's nothing further south or east than Asia-tearoa.

Wow, thats a different picture to what John Key was painting. The actual figures will be even worse if you consider house purchases that are financed from overseas sources!! So basically china is controlling the auckland real estate market and this is the evidence!!

This Article really shows the true colors and envious foolishness of some comments I read here today ...

Why on earth would anyone care about 20% of sales in a focused expensive area of NZ, to foreign or otherwise, of properties that can only be afforded by less than 5% of the Private Citizens in this country? ....

IT is NONE of your business who buys multi million dollar properties in Auckland leafy burbs or elsewhere ... whether buyers or sellers are foreign or not makes no difference at all when these properties are out of reach of almost everyone but the few rich and famous folks ... !! these are private properties - not Industrial or productive Land or Projects .. They are private HOMES!

This has nothing to do with FHBs, 2nd home buyers , not even most 3rd home buyers ... so what are you guys On about? .. These are private properties only available for exclusive buyers who can afford them with no sweat .. they are not your heritage, public property or Granny's jeules and silverware.!!

Save your Crocodile Tears, Stick with KB shoe boxes and the lack of that, chase your CoLs for broken promises and BS that they splashed everywhere.

IF you want accountability, Go and chase your MPs on spending MILLIONS of " Your Money " on consultants , committees and interim committees , studies leading nowhere .. While we have over 3000 kiwis sleeping rough in Aussie cities like Melbourne and living on handouts and food parcels from charities and supermarkets !!

enough said today !

If it's 20% in the Waitamata ward in 2018, what could it have been at the peak in 2016 before the Chinese clamp down on capital flight and a stagnation of prices? This shines a light on the influence of foreign buyers "adding fuel to the property fire". 20% is not insignificant - that could be sufficient to act as a "tipping point" effect. 20-25% is also what has been reported for years in Sydney, Melbourne, Tornonto etc.

My travels take me to Vancouver often and across Canada for that matter. I've always argued that Vancouver and Kelowna, have always been a looking glass into the future of Auckland and Otago 2/5/10/20 years from now. Indeed, if you ever have an opportunity to travel to Vancouver and Toronto, you'll see very clearly , without argument and with conviction the affects of foreign ownership economically , socially and politically. This isn't new, its been happening around the world for generations. I once asked a Vancouver local ..."hows life in Vancouver ?". His answer wasn't surprising but resonates as constant reminder of things to come and perhaps too late to reverse. " I hate it , he said". "I was born and raised here 3rd generation and every morning I travel 2 hours to get to a job I can't find outside the city. Only to serve those who pushed me out of the city where I was born". Forget the statistics, government reports, percentages and just open your eyes. I think we all know the affects of foreign ownership. Just look to other parts of the world, look to Auckland, look to Otago . It all comes down to what and how we want our New Zealand to look like for generations to come. This is the debate we should be having....Lets stop pretending that foreign buyers have no affect and stop spending waisted money on surveys and committees. Our senses , the faculty or power of seeing does not lie...we just need to open our eyes and admit the truth.

Labour need to understand the program.

They were not voted in as some sort of “National Lite".

Do what you promised and without delay – or these 3 years will simply be a novelty.

What I assume won't be included in the data is residents buying on behalf of non-resident affiliates. Those numbers would be interesting.

COL has a new definition for the last govt. Col of Liars.

Fear of foreigners, by the way, to our "racism" trigger contributors above, is called xenophobia, not racism. racism is the belief that another Nationality (not race, as there is only one race - human) is inherently inferior to ones own. That said, Stats NZ figures are important, not least because we have some facts on Auckland that LINZ mysteriously was incapable (and uninstructed) to collect and analyse, let alone present for public debate. These details show that non NZ people and Corporates are indeed (just as many prev said, to howls of protest and racism chants) buying. large % of primarily expensive property in Auckland and this inflates the prices because they are able to bid more (as every RE salesperson in North Shore , Central Auckland and Orewa knows full well, but does not like to say in public) Study of Stats NZ tables for these sales will make interesting reading which I shall now do. For 8 months my view has been that the uptick in sales compared to 2017 was due to overseas buyers getting in before the ban. As in any "brought forward" sales, there will be a predictable and natural hats (read: drop) after the policy is passed (IF?) That will mean a substantial drop in Auckland sales and prices.

These are the most telling words in this article
"However the actual number of overseas buyers may be significantly higher because the figures do not capture sales made to corporate entities such as companies, which accounted for around 10% of sales in the March quarter."
Edit: a typo I see. That 10% should have read 20%

131 million Chinese tourists travel the world every year spending $360 Billion. This is due to increase by another $100 Billion over the next 5 years. NZ attracts a very very small proportion of those spenders, believe it’s around 400,000 per annum. It’s growing but it’s still tiny overall. Over 11 million Chinese visit Bangkok every year. Puts things into perspective about how much they are thinking of NZ. Labour singling out foreigners (to appease Winston) and implying their money is not welcome would be a big shame for many small businesses in NZ.
The money will find an outlet elsewhere in another more open market.

this level of buyer is not new or unknown to most, what still annoys me is the lack of progress in shutting the open door policy and the lack of a proper register of whom owns what.
how can you shape policy without accurate facts, how many investment properties against OO or FHB
who is buying is important to shape any future tax arrangements, do we need incentives for investors in rental stock to purchase new builds against reducing the incentives for existing stock?
how much do overseas owners pay in tax ?
national had a pretty fair idea of whom was buying from there RE donors hence the strategy of turning the debate into a racial profiling one to shut down discussion.
why has labour not had the form changed from tax status to collect better data
why has labour not set up the register yet
"Labour and New Zealand First have agreed to ban foreigners from buying existing homes and set up a register of foreign-owned land and houses."
https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/house-sale-stats-continue-mislead-foreign…

So – is the door swinging open to the possibility of a “new” NZ First Party.

I’m not advocating some extreme, nationalist hateful collective – but is there room for a NZ First Party that looks beyond simply getting its’ leader into power and then standing back and mindlessly witnessing his basking in the baubles of office.

Such a party could well get a legitimate 5% vote – and use it more productively in any coalition talks and subsequent policy initiatives than the current pretenders.

Start by taking the vote away from permanent residents (like most countries do now)
Make permanent residency for a maximum of 10 years to encourage them to become citizens.
It would make new arrivals consider their future life in NZ - or NOT!

One in five foreign buyers in central Auckland is still a high rate of sales to non-NZers.
And that data would not include many buyers who are, in reality, a foreign buyer in a non-countable form.
So now we know that house prices have been very much driven up by foreign buyers and foreign-related buyers.

How odd, there are comments disappearing.

I am migrant like all Kiwi. The only difference is I moved into the country at 2012. I got residency in 2013. Never been outside of the country and never planing to return back to country of origin (even for holiday).
However, I am considered as foreign buyer. Not local. This is not fair.
I think article need more details regarding statistic (if possible):
Permanent Residence visa holders who permanently live in NZ, should be considered as locals (or been tracked in a separate column)
Passport holders who permanently living overseas might need to be considered as foreign (or at least been tracked).

I agree you lot have pulled the racism card on some of our posters so easily which is completely hypocritical given the point you are trying to make.

The simple fact of the matter is we have a problem with far too many immigrants from a particular county coming to NZ which has affected peoples lives massively. It needs to be more balanced.

Reckon this type of article is simply positioning for the sheeple while the ban becomes law. Will be interesting to see how many DGZ houses that are essentially non-maintained rental slums that come onto the market in the next 6 months.

I can see the tag lines now "Owners moving overseas" (never lived in NZ anyway), "Must sell" (let me bank the capital gain), "once in a lifetime opportunity" (I paid a lot...you should to), "unlock the potential" (slum lord owner - needs everything), "huge park-like" (I want development profit with no development risk), "Its GZ /DGZ" (Chinese buy my house before the ban), "Arts and Crafts" (was cool...in 1940 needs everything done), "strong potential" (last done up in the 80s - could be nice again with lots more of your money), "dream location" (about to be overshadowed by massive high rise development), "future proofed" (enjoy 13 years free health care and education while paying low tax in Asia)

Oh wait...most of those are tag lines on TM right now...

The greater issue was that over 9 years National simply let far too many migrants in from all nations (not just China) into the country due to very lightweight criteria and such ease of entry. Shut the door on migration for 3 years then cap it at 10,000 with very strict criteria, ban foreign buyers and that will solve your housing crisis.