NEW ZEALANDNEWSSUPPLIER NEWS

Juwai.com encouraging NZ agents to sell to Chinese buyers before government crackdown

Juwai will run a campaign throughout December, encouraging NZ real estate agents to connect Chinese buyers to properties in New Zealand, so that buyers can beat the proposed government ban on foreign buyers of existing homes.

“There is an old saying that a change is also an opportunity. We believe this proposed policy change has activated the group of Chinese buyers. They want to act quickly on transactions that otherwise would have taken many months,” said Jane Lu, Head of Australia for Juwai.com

“These buyers previously took their time in researching their transaction and want to act now before it is too late.”

The ban is part of the government’s attempts to improve the affordability of residential property. New Zealand is facing a housing affordability crisis after a combination of low interest rates, limited stock and high net immigration has driven up prices.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Government would introduce legislation to ban foreign buyers by Christmas and she expects it to take effect in early 2018.

With the exception of Australians, foreign buyers won’t be able to purchase existing residential dwellings in New Zealand, but will remain able to purchase land and build new homes for residential use.

Ms Ardern said the Government would be looking at land banking in further detail down the track.

According to an ANZ Bank estimate in February, the New Zealand housing shortage had reached 60,000 and was growing by 40 houses a day.

Formerly, U.S. investors were seen as putting upward pressure on New Zealand property prices but their interest has been dwarfed by a more recent influx of Chinese buyers.

“We’re running the campaign on Juwai.com because it can 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.” said Ms Lu from Juwai.

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Azal Khan

Azal Khan was a in-house features writer for Elite Agent Magazine.