Pre-ban push
A campaign will urge people to invest in New Zealand property before a foreign buyer ban takes effect.
New Zealand properties will be pushed by Chinese real estate website Juwai.com to beat a planned foreign investor ban by the Government.
An advertising campaign would run in December focused ‘‘solely on New Zealand’’ and involve 40 New Zealand real estate agents.
Juwai has more than 2 million monthly users looking at properties in 89 countries.
Spokesman Dave Platter said the adverts would highlight that a foreign buyer ban could soon be imposed by the New Zealand Government.
‘‘It will say that this is the situation in New Zealand, so if you’ve been planning to buy there in the next six to eight months then you should probably start talking to an agent now.’’
Housing Minister Phil Twyford said the campaign ‘‘just confirms the need to lock out overseas speculators and stop them driving up house prices. The housing market needs to be about delivering warm, affordable homes for New Zealanders, not profits to overseas speculators.’’
The Government would present a law within its first 100 days in office to ban foreign buyers from buying existing homes, he said.
New Zealand was the fifth most popular country in the world for Chinese buyers for two years, but in 2017 fell to sixth place, after Thailand went from sixth to third place.
Juwai’s Australia and New Zealand head, Jane Lu, said the most popular city for Chinese buyers in New Zealand was Auckland, followed by Christchurch, Wellington, Queenstown and Hamilton.
She said the policy change had ‘‘activated’’ Chinese buyers.
‘‘These buyers previously took their time in researching their transaction and want to act now before it is too late.’’
Lu said it could be hard in China to get information about New Zealand properties.
‘‘Compared to USA and Australia, fewer Kiwi developers and agents are selling in China.’’