About a third of New Zealand’s most expensive properties remain out of reach for holders of the Active Investor Plus visa — the country’s so-called golden visa — prompting calls to lower the scheme’s price threshold outside the two cities where it currently works best.
New research by Bayleys Real Estate, reported by OneRoof, found that 29 percent of the country’s priciest listings are disqualified from the Active Investor Plus (AIP) scheme, which allows foreign investors to buy New Zealand property worth NZ$5 million or more — but only if the property is not deemed “sensitive,” such as waterfront land, and is under 5 hectares. Bayleys analysed 650 residential and lifestyle listings priced at NZ$5 million and above in June: 20 percent sat on non-urban land exceeding 5 hectares, 11 percent were in marine or coastal areas, and 3 percent exceeded island land-area limits, with some properties triggering more than one exclusion.
So far only 25 properties have been bought through the AIP scheme, the majority in Auckland and Queenstown-Lakes, according to OneRoof. Bayleys’ head of insights, Chris Farhi, said the NZ$5 million threshold effectively channels foreign investment toward those two markets, where prices are higher and non-sensitive land is more available, while other regions have both fewer qualifying listings and a higher share of sensitive land. He proposed keeping the NZ$5 million threshold in Auckland and Otago but lowering it to NZ$2–3 million elsewhere, warning that otherwise “we are just going to see investors clustered in Auckland or Queenstown.” Overseas buyers can still apply to buy sensitive properties, Farhi said, but face considerably more hurdles to do so.
References
OneRoof – 29% of NZ’s priciest properties off limits to golden visa buyers
