In the year ended March 2024, 0.4 percent of home transfers were to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or a resident visa, according to figures released by Stats NZ today.
This proportion was unchanged compared with the year ended March 2023.
“Law changes in late 2018 introduced restrictions for most overseas buyers,” construction and property statistics manager Michael Heslop said.
“As a result, the share of annual home transfers to overseas buyers has been 0.5 percent or less since the year ended December 2019.”
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In the year ended March 2024, of all home transfers:
- 76 percent were to at least one NZ citizen
- 14 percent were to at least one NZ-resident-visa holder (but no citizens)
- 9.2 percent were to corporate entities only (these could have NZ or overseas owners)
- 0.4 percent were to no NZ citizens or resident-visa holders.
Not all transfers involve a sale. They also include a wide range of activities such as deceased estates, trustee changes, marriage settlements, boundary changes, and changes to the proportions of shares of ownership.
| ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ buyer citizenship or visa status | No NZ citizens or resident visas | Corporate only | At least one NZ resident visa (but no citizens) | At least one NZ citizen |
| 2018 | 2.7 | 10.4 | 7.9 | 79 |
| 2019 | 2 | 10.3 | 8 | 79.7 |
| 2020 | 0.5 | 10.3 | 8.2 | 81.1 |
| 2021 | 0.4 | 11 | 8.6 | 80 |
| 2022 | 0.3 | 11 | 10 | 78.6 |
| 2023 | 0.4 | 10.1 | 11.7 | 77.9 |
| 2024 | 0.4 | 9.2 | 13.8 | 76.5 |
Resident-visa holders’ share of home transfers increases
The proportion of home transfers to NZ-resident-visa holders was 14 percent in the year ended March 2024, up from 12 percent in the year ended March 2023.
“The share of home transfers to resident-visa holders has grown in the past three years, increasing from 8.6 percent in the year ended March 2021 to 14 percent in the year ended March 2024,” Heslop said.
The ‘resident-visa holders’ category covers sales and other transfers where at least one of the buyers held a NZ resident visa. It excludes transfers where at least one of the buyers held NZ citizenship.
In the year ended March 2024, the proportion of home transfers to resident-visa holders increased in all regions except Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay compared with the year ended March 2023.
Regions with the highest share of home transfers to NZ-resident-visa holders were:
- Auckland with 23 percent (up from 19 percent in the year ended March 2023)
- Canterbury with 12 percent (up from 11 percent)
- Waikato with 11 percent (up from 9.3 percent)
- Wellington with 11 percent (up from 9.5 percent).
“The proportion of home transfers to resident-visa holders in Auckland is much higher than other regions, which has driven the increase of this share at the national level,” Heslop said.
In the year ended March 2024, there were 8,616 home transfers to resident-visa holders in Auckland, accounting for more than half of the national number of home transfers to this buyer category.
| Region | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Northland | 4.6 | 4.8 | 5.4 | 7 |
| Auckland | 14.8 | 16.8 | 19 | 22.9 |
| Waikato | 6.4 | 7.6 | 9.3 | 11.2 |
| Bay of Plenty | 4.7 | 6 | 7.1 | 9.9 |
| Gisborne | 4 | 5.1 | 6.8 | 6 |
| Hawke’s Bay | 5.2 | 5.5 | 7.1 | 7 |
| Taranaki | 4 | 5 | 5.2 | 5.6 |
| Manawatū-Wanganui | 5 | 5.9 | 6.4 | 7.3 |
| Wellington | 7.5 | 8.4 | 9.5 | 11.2 |
| Tasman | 4.6 | 4.6 | 5.3 | 7.9 |
| Nelson | 5.8 | 5.3 | 8.2 | 8.9 |
| Marlborough | 4.8 | 4.9 | 6.7 | 7.5 |
| West Coast | 3.1 | 3 | 3.3 | 4.7 |
| Canterbury | 6.7 | 8.7 | 11 | 12.5 |
| Otago | 5 | 6.1 | 7.4 | 8.1 |
| Southland | 3.9 | 4.6 | 6.2 | 8 |
| New Zealand | 8.6 | 10 | 11.7 | 13.8 |
Property transfer statistics contain no information on the length of time that home buyers or sellers have held any visa or lived in New Zealand. The migration status of parties cannot be determined from this data.
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