Wealthy foreign investors with an investor residence visa will be able to purchase a home in New Zealand, the Government has announced in a major change to the country’s foreign investment regime.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the general ban on foreigners buying residential houses will remain.
“However, the Government wants to bring additional investment, skills, ideas and connections to New Zealand, and the Active Investor Plus residency visa allows that,” Luxon said.
“It offers residency to a migrant who invests a minimum of $5 million to help grow the economy, passes a good character test, and has acceptable health.”
The Active Investor Plus Visa – the so-called Golden Visa – requires a minimum of $5m to be invested into direct investments or managed funds. There is also a $10m option, with a wider range of options for investments.
“Because Active Investor Plus residency visa-holders do not have to be in New Zealand for six months of a year, the foreign buyer ban means some do not meet the threshold for buying a house under the Overseas Investment Act,” Luxon said.
“The Government has therefore decided that people with an Active Investor Plus residency visa will be allowed to buy or build one home.
“The minimum value of the house that can be bought or built will be set at $5m – which equates to less than 1% of New Zealand houses."
Luxon said this change “navigates a path between those who do not want foreign ownership opened up, and the desire to attract high net worth investors by deepening their connection to our country to help grow the economy”.
Speaking at a press conference, the Prime Minister said there were about 1.9 million houses in New Zealand. When including the $5m condition, there were about 10,000 eligible homes. He said about 80% were in Auckland and 10% in Queenstown.
The Government didn’t want to drive up property prices and he wanted to see affordable housing, Luxon said.
There is no tax associated with this policy, as National had proposed at the election.
“We don’t think we need it,” Luxon said. “We think this is all about making sure we aren’t driving into speculative property investment. What we want to be doing is driving into productive investment.”
There have been 308 applications for the Golden Visa. Many of these people are from the United States, China and Hong Kong. The applications received amount to a potential total minimum investment of about $1.8 billion.
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said there may be more interest in the visa following this announcement. She said if those investors had a base or home here, “they spend more time here”.
“I think we will see some more. I am not expecting it to blow out. But I think we will see some more.”
Stanford said the number of people eligible to buy property under these changes are “very small”.
“We are talking about hundreds of people. Not tens of thousands,” she said.
This move represents a major change in direction for foreign investment into New Zealand after the Labour-NZ First Government limited the ability of non-residents and non-citizens to purchase homes here. There was room for some exemptions.
The ban, announced in 2017, was intended to stop foreign speculators buying up homes in New Zealand, which was seen as a contributor to house price increases. However, the likes of National and Act opposed it.
NZ First leader Winston Peters on Monday reiterated the “foreign buyers ban on housing remains”. However, those with an Active Investor Plus residence visa, investing millions into the economy, should be able to buy a home, he said.
“We have ensured that there are tight restrictions on eligibility and what these current residence visa holders can purchase,” he said.
“Including that existing restrictions excluding the sale of rural, farm, and sensitive land will still apply, as well as ensuring we do not get a repeat of the Canadian experience – where there is a constant recycling of the same investment funds."
Peters said the holders will be restricted to one home with the value being at least $5m.
“This will exclude over 99% of New Zealand homes on the market, protecting the vast majority from sale to foreigners, and will not affect the wider housing market for kiwis.”
Labour’s housing spokesman Kieran McAnulty believed the changes will drive up house prices.
“More pressure at the top end pulls up house prices for the average Kiwi. New Zealanders should be at the top of the priority list for houses,” he said.
“Homelessness is up, unemployment is up, and people cannot afford the basics at the supermarket; but Christopher Luxon made it his priority to drive up house prices again anyway.”
Peters has been vocal for years about pushing back against foreign ownership.
For example, ahead of the 2023 election, Peters posted on X (formerly Twitter) about how his party, when last in Government, had “ensured our housing market was for kiwi residents only and banned non-resident foreign buyers.
“Our stance hasn’t changed,” the NZ First leader said.
“In a property-owning democracy the government’s first priority for home ownership should be New Zealanders – not allowing a gross distortion of the market by deep-pocketed foreigners who don’t care about struggling kiwis and who just want profits and an asset bolthole if things go wrong in their own country.”
In July, Peters told the Herald his party wasn’t “softening” its approach to foreign ownership, but he was open to investors pumping millions of dollars into New Zealand’s economy to buy a home here.
He wouldn’t confirm at the time what the investment threshold was but did indicate it would be above $2m.
“The idea that for $2m you could come into this country and get a key and that’s your investment was a nonsense,” Peters told the Herald.
“We said so before the election. We also debunked the costings for it, and were joined not long after that by economists who said that New Zealand First was right.
“We’re saying if you’re coming here with millions of dollars to invest in this country, then yes, you could buy a house, and we’re setting the terms for that.”
It was National’s 2023 election policy to impose a 15% tax on overseas people who want to purchase property valued at more than $2m. That policy was kiboshed by NZ First during coalition negotiations.
Luxon has since admitted $2m may have been too low, but $5m may be more appropriate.
The Government made changes to the Active Investor Plus Visa earlier this year, introducing two categories in which foreigners can invest. This provides a pathway to residency for investors after keeping their funds invested for a particular period of time.
The Growth category requires a minimum of $5m in either direct investments or managed funds for three years, while the Balanced category requires at least $10m across a variety of options like bonds, new property developments, and philanthropy for five years.
Last week, Stanford announced a new visa to attract foreign businesspeople to New Zealand.
It will give foreign businesspeople investing $2m into an existing business here a fast-track to residency in New Zealand. A $1m investment comes with a three-year work-to-residency pathway.
If the business is worth $1m or $2m, they’d have to purchase the business. If it was worth more than that, they’d have to invest at least 25% of its total value.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. In 2025, he was a finalist for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.