Foreign buyers nab 1 in 10 homes

Foreign buyers have snapped up one in every 10 homes sold in inner-city Auckland over the past three months — marking a significant drop off in activity ahead of a new ban on overseas investors.

The foreign buyer ban took effect on October 22 with many pundits expecting overseas investors to snap up as much property as they could before being barred from the market.

Yet foreign buyers bought just 9.8 per cent of the homes sold in Auckland’s inner city over the past three months to September, according to Stats NZ data released yesterday.

This was less than half the 22 per cent of houses they snapped up in the June quarter.

Across the whole Auckland region, foreign buyers bought 4 per cent of the properties sold in the last quarter, and 2 per cent of all properties sold in New Zealand.

Stats NZ’s property statistics manager Melissa McKenzie said the number of inner-city homes sold to overseas buyers last quarter was similar to the 9.3 per cent sold to them in the same three-month period last year.

“This may reflect seasonal patterns, but that will not be clear until we get a few more years’ data. These results also may have been influenced by anticipated [Overseas Investment Act changes],” she said.

The latest data covers the period before the foreign buyer ban came into effect.

The ban bars all foreigners — except for Australians and Singaporeans — from buying typical Kiwi homes.

Senior research analyst from CoreLogic Kelvin Davidson said the Stats NZ figures appeared to show foreign buyer activity had tapered off after picking up early in the year in response to the ban being tabled in Parliament last December.