Looking ahead to changes with overseas investing, I’ve read a few interesting articles this week that have highlighted what the actual impacts of the proposed ban on foreign buyers will be.
The first bit of information I have found insightful, comes from realestate.co.nz directly, who is our leading property website in New Zealand. Of all property views, about 8 to 9% of hits come from countries outside of New Zealand and Australia. The next largest countries to be looking for property here are Britain, the Unites States, Canada, and Hong Kong. This is an interesting statistic to keep in mind, as a lot of the focus lately has been specifically on Chinese buyers, however this does not seem to be where the bulk of foreign investment is coming from.
About two years ago, foreign investment slowed significantly when our banks requested all overseas buyers to produce an IRD number and a local bank account number. Banks stopped approving mortgages based on overseas income, and the Chinese government looked to and eventually has tightened restrictions around the ability to move money out of China.
I say this, as foreign demand has been impacted previously around the country, therefore I believe the current ban will have a very limited effect on the property market, and even less, to no effect here in Christchurch.