With China rolling out austerity measures throughout the country, many Chinese investors are now looking to purchase property in New Zealand in a bid to make a profit.
In January last year the New Zealand government loosened visa policies on multiple entry visas, offering longer business visas and extending validities – a move which saw New Zealand reaping investment benefits for the rest of the year.
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No less than 409,008 Chinese visited New Zealand in 2016, a 14.9% growth that has now trickled over into the property market. With that in mind, Chinese property website Juwai has published a list of the 10 most viewed locations in New Zealand, with some surprising results.
While the top three of Auckland, Chistchurch and Queenstown may have been expected, the sleepy town of Oamaru in fourth place certainly was not.
Coming in ahead of the capital city of Wellington, Oamaru, on the South Island’s east coast, is seeing a surge in overseas buyers.
“The last six months have been really quite spectacular,” said Alan McLay, a former mayor and an estate agent with Ray White. “It’s like the word got out [that] Oamaru is the place to be: historic precinct, views, cheap residential property.”
As well as Chinese buyers, McLay has dealt with enquiries from Australia, the US and France.
“A lot of these overseas buyers aren’t filthy rich, they’re just moderately rich so still looking for an affordable bargain and, for some of them, it’s possibly a means to an end coming to live in New Zealand as well.”
However, with property prices in New Zealand spiraling, and therefore pricing many first time buyers out of the market, some people are calling for foreign ownership in NZ to be banned altogether.
