New Zealand Haven Feeling Brunt of Investment Policy
- Foreigners banned from buying residential property last month
- Central Otago-Lakes District may be first area to be impacted
Photographer: Marty Melville/AFP via Getty Images
New Zealand’s Central Otago, whose ski fields, vineyards and golf courses have made it a popular bolthole for the world’s mega wealthy, may be showing the effects of the South Pacific nation’s crackdown on foreign home owners.
Average asking prices for homes in the South Island’s Central Otago-Lakes District fell 19 percent to NZ$857,011 ($590,000) in November from the previous month after New Zealand implemented legislation restricting foreign ownership. New listings in the region -- whose property owners are reported to include hedge-fund pioneer Julian Robertson and Hong Kong-based financier Michael Nock -- fell 4.6 percent, according to a report released Monday by realestate.co.nz, the country’s most popular property website.