Green party calls to follow Australia’s lead
(28 April 2010 – New Zealand) New Zealand’s Green Party has called on the nation’s government to follow Australia’s lead and tighten foreign investment rules around housing, in order to make housing more affordable for New Zealanders.
As the Australian Government gears up to re-introduce restrictions on foreign ownership of housing, meaning that foreign citizens must get the Foreign Investment Review Board’s permission to buy housing and must sell the property when they leave, New Zealand’s Green Party co-leader, Dr Russell Norman has called on the Key government to implement similar rules within the nation.
Foreign investors have contributed to the speculative bubble in housing prices in Australia and New Zealand over the last five years. This has made housing expensive and inaccessible for ordinary New Zealanders, said Dr Norman.
The danger to New Zealand is that if Australia tightens rules on foreign investment in housing, investors may head to New Zealand with its open door foreign investment policy, Dr Norman added.
New Zealand needs to tighten rules around housing and land in order to help make housing more affordable for New Zealand citizens and residents, Dr Norman noted.
Dr Norman is concerned that if the Key Government fails to act home ownership will continue to be a pipe-dream for the vast majority of New Zealanders under 40.
Figures from the 2001 and 2006 Census show that for those aged under 40, there has been a decline in the proportion of usual residents who owned the dwelling they lived in from 30.2 percent in 2001 to 27.0 percent in 2006.
The Government has announced that it will make changes to the tax treatment of investment property in the up-coming Budget.
Changing the rules around investment property may assist New Zealand’s overinflated housing market, said Dr Norman.
But this will be tinkering at the edges of the problem if the government does not tighten the rules that allow overseas citizens to speculate in the New Zealand real estate market, Dr Norman added.
Foreign investors have contributed to the speculative bubble in housing prices in Australia and New Zealand over the last five years. This has made housing expensive and inaccessible for ordinary New Zealanders, said Dr Norman.
The danger to New Zealand is that if Australia tightens rules on foreign investment in housing, investors may head to New Zealand with its open door foreign investment policy, Dr Norman added.
New Zealand needs to tighten rules around housing and land in order to help make housing more affordable for New Zealand citizens and residents, Dr Norman noted.
Dr Norman is concerned that if the Key Government fails to act home ownership will continue to be a pipe-dream for the vast majority of New Zealanders under 40.
Figures from the 2001 and 2006 Census show that for those aged under 40, there has been a decline in the proportion of usual residents who owned the dwelling they lived in from 30.2 percent in 2001 to 27.0 percent in 2006.
The Government has announced that it will make changes to the tax treatment of investment property in the up-coming Budget.
Changing the rules around investment property may assist New Zealand’s overinflated housing market, said Dr Norman.
But this will be tinkering at the edges of the problem if the government does not tighten the rules that allow overseas citizens to speculate in the New Zealand real estate market, Dr Norman added.
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