Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will end foreign buying of existing houses by classifying them all as “sensitive” under the Overseas Investment Act.
This would effectively ban foreign speculators without affecting the TPP or most free trade agreements, Ardern said.
Anyone who was not either a citizen or resident of New Zealand would not be allowed to purchase existing homes.
“The Government will introduce an amendment to the Overseas Investment Act to classify housing as ‘sensitive’ and introduce a residency test,” Ardern said in her first post-cabinet press conference.
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“We stand strongly in the view that housing is a right.”
