Foreign owners selling their New Zealand residential properties at more than twice the rate they are buying them

By Greg Ninness

The number of overseas buyers purchasing New Zealand residential property continues to decline dramatically.

According to the latest home transfer figures from Statistics NZ, just 135 residential dwellings were purchased by people who were not New Zealand citizens or residents in the June quarter of this year.

That's down from 1116 in the June quarter of 2018, before restrictions on foreign buyers were introduced for residential property in October 2018.

The latest figures show purchases by foreign buyers were the second lowest of any quarter since Statistics NZ began compiling the figures in the June quarter of 2017.

The only time purchases by overseas buyers have been lower was in the June quarter of last year, when sales came to a virtual standstill for much of the quarter due to the COVID lockdown restrictions in place at the time.

In the 12 months to the end of June this year, 744 residential properties were purchased by foreign buyers.

That compares to 4017 properties purchased by foreign buyers in the 12 months to June 2018.

This story was originally published on Interest.co.nz and has been republished here with permission.