Standalone builds free from overseas buyer ban

apartment complexes will be able to sell some unbuilt units ‘‘off the plan’’ to foreigners if their complex is 20 units or larger.

Those foreigners will be forced to either onsell the apartment on completion or rent it out – they could not live in the apartment without a residence-class visa.

But unbuilt standalone homes planned as part of 20-unit or higher developments will also be able to be sold off the plan to foreigners under the same conditions.

Existing homes and apartments remain totally unreachable for foreigners who do not intend to reside in New Zealand long term.

Trade Minister David Parker told this new position was actually closer to Labour’s original policy it took to the election, which only banned foreigners from buying existing homes.

‘‘The form of the bill that went to Select Committee was a lot tougher than that. It said you couldn’t buy off the plans, or buy to build. And we heard submissions in Select Committee that actually ‘you had it right first time’,’’ Parker said.

The law will allow up to 60 per cent of a development to be sold off the plan to foreign buyers, but that limit would be controlled in regulation, meaning the government of the day could change it easily – but not send it higher than 60 per cent.

National leader Simon Bridges said even with the relaxation the bill was a ‘‘textbook case in bad law-making.’’

The ban is likely to be in place by the end of the year.