First-home buyers driving prices more than investors: King

Andrew King was responding to Labour’s announcement than once in power, it would not allow foreign investors to buy second-hand homes in New Zealand.

King said all signs suggested that investors from other parts of the world did not buy very many of the properties for sale in New Zealand. “It’s unlikely to have a large effect on the market.”

He said it might be fair to restrict buyers from countries where New Zealanders could not purchase but if New Zealanders could buy freely in one country, there was no need to curb that country’s investment behaviour in New Zealand.

“I don’t think it’s the be all and end all, or the king hit. First-home buyers are the biggest driver of house prices at the moment.”

In the year to March, 10,733 people had taken out their KiwiSaver savings to use as a deposit on a first home, he said. “In the same year ended March, there were also 11,000 extra property sales. The fact that they are so close shows that first-home buyers are having more of an effect on demand for property than foreign buyers.”

Comments from our readers

On 6 August 2013 at 8:19 am Richard said:

Foreign 'investors' mainly Chinese have pushed central Auckland prices and seller expectations so high that outer suburbs have now followed. Attend as many auctions as I have in central Auckland and you will witness what is happening.

On 6 August 2013 at 9:13 pm Someone said:

Andrew King is wrong and it can be proven with a simple class room activity. Put 100 people into a room with 100 seats, and give then $100. Get them to treat the seats as houses (high value). Charge them to sit in the seats. You would expect each seat to sell for $1...

Repeat but put 101 people in the room. Each seat should sell for $100, and one person will miss out. One extra person in the market can change the demand and increase prices drastically.

"All signs suggested that investors from other parts of the world did not buy very many of the properties for sale in New Zealand". But is it enough to skew the ratio of houses to buyers?

First-home buyers driving prices more than investors: King

First-home buyers are having more of an impact on Auckland property prices than foreign investors, says the president of the New Zealand Property Investors Federation.

Monday, August 5th 2013, 12:00AM 2 Comments

Comments from our readers

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