Some property purchases require consent from the overseas investment office, does yours?

Since October 2018, the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) placed greater restrictions on who can buy property in New Zealand. This article relates only to residential properties and does not include sensitive land or any other investments purchases. Although almost all overseas people are now unable to buy homes in New Zealand (regardless of whether they already own property here. There are a few exceptions where overseas people can request consent from the OIO.

You don’t need consent if:

• You are a New Zealand, Australian or Singaporean citizen; or
• You have a New Zealand, Australian or Singaporean Permanent Resident Visa and live in New Zealand; or
• You have a New Zealand Resident Visa and live in New Zealand.

To “live in New Zealand” means you must have been here for at least 12 months and you must have spent at least 183 days of the past 12 months in New Zealand.

If you meet the above criteria, you are required to sign a Residential Land Statement declaring your eligibility under the new OIO requirements.

You cannot buy a home to live in if:

• You have a Temporary Visa (e.g. visitor, student, working holiday or work visa); or
• You are any other type of overseas person.

If you are in this category, you will not get consent from the OIO.

You must apply for consent from the OIO if:

• You have a New Zealand Permanent Resident Visa or Resident Visa and do not live in New Zealand; or
• You have a New Zealand Permanent Resident Visa or Resident Visa and have lived in New Zealand for less than 12 months or have not been in New Zealand for at least 183 days in the previous 12 months.
• You have an Australian or Singaporean Permanent Resident Visa and do not live in New Zealand.

You can apply for a consent once you have found a home to buy, or you can get pre-approval if you have not yet chosen a property to buy. OIO advised that applications can take up to 10 working days to process. We suggest you allow for a longer time-frame and will need to consider this when making an offer on a property.

To successfully obtain consent, you must declare that you are committed to living in New Zealand. If you stop living in New Zealand, you might need to sell the property.

There are some exemptions to the consent requirements, including the spouse or partner exemption. For example, if you are a couple who want to buy a family home to live in, and one of you is a New Zealand citizen, and the other is not, then the spouse who is not a citizen is exempt from requiring consent.
If you have any issues or questions in relation to anything addressed in this article, please feel free to contact us.