Overseas buyer influence low
In the year ended March, only 0.4% of home transfers were to individuals who were neither New Zealand citizens nor resident visa holders, maintaining the same proportion as the previous year, Stats NZ figures showed.
“Law changes in late 2018 introduced restrictions for most overseas buyers,” said Michael Heslop, construction and property statistics manager at Stats NZ. “As a result, the share of annual home transfers to overseas buyers has been 0.5% or less since the year ended December 2019.”
Diverse home transfer categories
Home transfers include not only sales but also activities such as deceased estates, trustee changes, marriage settlements, boundary changes, and shifts in ownership shares. Of all home transfers in the year ended March:
- 76% were to at least one New Zealand citizen.
- 14% were to at least one NZ resident-visa holder, excluding citizens.
- 9.2% were to corporate entities, which may have both NZ or overseas owners.
- 0.4% involved no NZ citizens or resident-visa holders.
Growing share of resident-visa holders in home transfers
Stats NZ data showed that the proportion of home transfers to NZ-resident-visa holders increased to 14% in the year ended March, up from 12% the previous year.
“The share of home transfers to resident-visa holders has grown in the past three years, increasing from 8.6% in the year ended March 2021 to 14% in the year ended March 2024,” Heslop said.
This growth was seen in all regions except Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.
Auckland witnessed the highest proportion of home transfers to NZ-resident-visa holders at 23%, a notable increase from 19% in the previous year. Other regions such as Canterbury, Waikato, and Wellington also saw increases in this category.
“The proportion of home transfers to resident-visa holders in Auckland is much higher than other regions, which has driven the increase of this share at the national level,” Heslop said.
In 2024, Auckland accounted for more than half of the national number of home transfers to resident-visa holders, totaling 8,616, Stats NZ reported.
Access the Stats NZ media release here.
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