National Party leader Christopher Luxon has confirmed a policy announcement relating to the foreign home buyer ban will be made soon.
The party opposed the restrictions when they were first passed in 2018 and wants to encourage more foreign investment in New Zealand.
When asked by Interest.co.nz and others on Tuesday, Luxon said some restrictions were necessary but wouldn't give any more detail.
“There clearly needs to be restrictions on foreign buyers, that is something we do support, but we’ll have more to say about it with our tax policy,” he said.
It was enough of an answer for Newshub, which reported it “looked likely” National was planning to scrap the ban during the 6pm news Tuesday night.
Luxon was then asked again during a series of regular radio interviews on Wednesday morning. Each time he told the hosts to wait-and-see.
When asked if he would scrap the ban on TVNZ’s Breakfast show, he said National would have more to say on that subject soon.
“Foreign investment is just a part of what we might need to do in terms of getting our economy growing again, alongside other things as well," Luxon said.
Voters could expect an announcement on the party’s actual position “very, very shortly”.
In a press release, Labour’s David Parker criticised the possible future announcement and warned any reversal could be permanently locked in by recent trade agreements.
Labour passed the overseas buyers ban before the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade deal came into effect.
Parker said other signatory countries would have the right to buy on the same terms as New Zealanders if the law was now overturned.
At this point the “most-favoured-nation” clause in other trade agreements would kick in and likely force New Zealand to extend the rule to other countries, such as China and the European Union.
A most-favoured-nation clause requires a country providing a trade concession to one trading partner to extend the same treatment to all, and it is commonly included in agreements.
“Labour believes New Zealanders should not be outbid by wealthy foreign buyers … National needs to come clean on their plans to sell out New Zealand again,” Parker said.
The Overseas Investment Amendment Bill was passed by Labour in August 2018, with the support of New Zealand First and the Green Party. National voted against the Bill.
Purchases of New Zealand homes by foreign buyers had declined 91% by the 2022 June quarter, as the restrictions pushed them almost completely out of the market.
According to Statistics New Zealand, just half a percent of all home transfers were to a non-citizen or resident-visa holder in the year ended June 2023.
That’s 534 total transactions, compared with over 4,000 in the year ended June 2018.
However, these figures only capture transactions where a property was held in an overseas person's own name.
They do not record transactions involving either a sale or a purchase where the ownership of the property was via a company, even if the controlling or beneficial shareholders are foreign.
The figures are also very unlikely to capture most transactions where the property involved is owned by a trust, even if the beneficiaries or most of the trustees are foreign.
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