Kiwi ban on foreign home buyers from 2018

Restrictions will not apply to Australians, prime minister says

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday a ban on foreigners buying existing homes would begin in early 2018, but the restrictions would not apply to Australians.

Ardern campaigned in the recent New Zealand election to restrict foreign buyers to reduce demand, while the country tackles what her Labour Party says is a housing crisis left unresolved by the previous National administration.

“We are determined to make it easier for Kiwis to buy their first home so we are stopping foreign speculators buying houses and driving up prices. Kiwis should not be outbid like this,” said Ardern in an emailed statement, using the colloquial term for New Zealanders.

The politically sensitive housing crunch has seen prices rise more than 50 per cent nationally in the last decade. In the city of Auckland, prices have almost doubled in that period. The central bank sees fast-rising prices as a major economic risk.

The ban would not apply to Australians, Ardern said, given New Zealanders are exempt from home ownership restrictions in neighbouring Australia, where many New Zealanders live.

Ardern told reporters that legislation would be introduced in parliament by December 25.

The restrictions were being fast-tracked so that Labour would not have to renegotiate foreign investment provisions in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, after a long series of talks to revive the agreement since the United States pulled out in January.