Expat Kiwis rush to buy houses back home – but few on offer

PHOTO: Vanessa Taylor – realestate.co.nz

Despite few homes going on the market under the pandemic lockdown, interest from overseas in New Zealand property is booming.

New figures released by website realestate.co.nz show almost a quarter of the site’s traffic at the moment is coming from offshore.

“There has been a real increase in interest from overseas people,” said spokesperson Vanessa Taylor.

“Certainly we have seen US, UK and Australian users searching for property here in New Zealand… we may see a bunch of Kiwis wanting to come home, with New Zealand being a bit of a safe haven.”

Though it’s not clear if they’re Kiwis looking to come home or foreigners interested in making a new start, Taylor suspects many would be expats, as most of the offshore traffic is coming from countries with large Kiwi populations.

Most foreigners can’t generally buy property in New Zealand anymore, until they’re a resident or a citizen.

And it’s been a struggle for locals too, with few homes going on the market since the lockdown began in March. Listings hit a high on March 20, the day before the Government unveiled its pandemic alert level system and a week before we went into level 4.