NZ just rolled out the red carpet – but only for the mega-wealthy

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon dropped a bombshell of sorts when he announced recently that foreign buyers with “golden visas” (officially known as the Active Investor Plus Visa) can now purchase homes worth $5 million or more in New Zealand.

It’s an exclusive club, opening up less than 1% of New Zealand’s housing supply to visa holders. What’s more, these homes must be on the market. And in any given year, that may represent as little as 5% of properties in this tiny subset. Even at market peak, $5m-plus sales represented just 0.4% of total sales.

The Labour Party doesn’t like it, saying New Zealand homes should be for New Zealanders. But it’s hardly opening the floodgates or setting off a property grab.

Likely hot spots

  • Of the 31 suburbs with more than 50 homes in the higher price range, just three are outside Auckland and Queenstown-Lakes: Mount Maunganui (204 homes), Whangamata (89), and Merivale, Christchurch (54).

  • The suburb with by far the greatest concentration of $5m-plus homes is Remuera, with 1,056 high-value houses identified — more than 700 more than the next-highest suburb, neighbouring Parnell.

Trade Me currently lists 424 properties nationwide with a price indication above $5 million, including luxury homes in Rodney, Devonport, and Matakana, plus some serious Queenstown eye candy.

How we got here

National campaigned in 2023 on letting foreigners buy homes worth more than $2m, subject to a 15% tax, but was forced to abandon that plan during coalition negotiations with NZ First.

Winston Peters, who helped introduce the original 2018 ban, eventually came around. Peters told the New Zealand Herald last month that if a foreigner was coming to New Zealand “with millions of dollars to invest in this country, then yes, you could buy a house.”

Who qualifies for this exclusive club

The requirements:

  • Hold an Active Investor Plus residency visa.

  • Invest a minimum of $5 million to help grow the economy, pass a good-character test, and have acceptable health.

  • Previously, such visa holders could not purchase property unless they spent more than six months of the year living in New Zealand.

Restrictions:

  • Holders will be restricted to one home valued at at least $5m.

  • Existing restrictions excluding the sale of rural, farm, and sensitive land will still apply.

There have been more than 300 applications for the Active Investor Plus residency visa since it was relaunched on April 1, potentially bringing a total minimum investment of $1.8 billion into the New Zealand economy.

What market insiders are saying

The real estate industry is mostly optimistic.

Optimists: Queenstown agent Hamish Walker told OneRoof that the lifting of the ban was “a positive step forward,” noting he had a network of foreign clients actively looking to buy New Zealand property, some of whom were from America.

Ollie Wall, of Wall Real Estate, said the changes would have an “instant effect on the market,” with offshore buyers, mostly from America, reaching out with very specific requirements.

New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty managing director Mark Harris told OneRoof that he didn’t think the changes would come to much: “There’s no doubt [the changes] will encourage more buyers into the market, but it won’t have a dramatic impact on price because a lot of people in this category have certainly done their research on prices and won’t pay over the odds.”

Political pushback

Not everyone’s happy about the change. Predictably, perhaps, Labour’s Kieran McAnulty called Luxon “out of touch,” while Green Party housing spokesperson Tamatha Paul warned that “real estate agents will have every incentive to boost prices to $5m in order to sell to this new wealthy market, further shunting struggling renters and homebuyers out of contention.”

ACT leader David Seymour countered, calling the move “a massive win-win,” arguing that wealthy investors buying high-value homes won’t impact first-home buyers.

Why now?

The decision comes as New Zealand grapples with a weak economy, having slipped into recession in late 2024, with next to no momentum through the first half of this year.

The government is betting that our lifestyle will attract deep-pocketed investors to New Zealand and that being able to buy a home will help them achieve that lifestyle.

Should property investors care?

Unless you’re in the luxury property game, no. This change will exclude over 99% of New Zealand homes on the market, protecting the vast majority from sale to foreigners and will not affect the wider housing market for Kiwis. But if luxury’s your game, the change creates a new buyer pool.

Will it move the needle? In Remuera and Queenstown, possibly. In Hamilton and Palmerston North? Probably not.

Changes won’t take effect until the end of the year, when reforms to the Overseas Investment Act are passed into law.

This isn’t 2018’s property gold rush redux. It’s a carefully calibrated policy targeting the ultra-luxury segment.

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