Foreign buyer ban unlikely to impact house prices

The Herald reports:

The Labour-led Government’s move to restrict foreign speculators from taking a chunk out of the property market is being questioned given a similar policy across the Tasman has done little to curb prices in Australia.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has told members of the public a bill to stop overseas buyers from purchasing existing homes would be introduced by Christmas.

Meanwhile, those in the property industry are questioning if restricting foreign buyers was the answer to the country’s housing crisis, given Australia, which already had a similar policy in place, was one of the most unaffordable countries globally.

It’s populism trying to scapegoat people with Chinese sounding surnames for house prices. It will have little impact.

Real estate agent Ollie Wall, from Graham Wall Real Estate, said there were not as many foreign buyers snapping up properties as the public thought.

“We sell properties to a lot of what would be considered foreigners, 99 per cent of them have New Zealand passports.”

Land Information New Zealand showed that in April to June 2017, 3 per cent of property transfers involved overseas tax resident buyers.

What is really going to impact affordability is interest rates as they start to rise.