PHOTO: Lake Wakatipu, in Queenstown, New Zealand. Photographer: Mark Coote/Bloomberg
New Zealand’s ban on foreign buyers is damping house prices in Queenstown, a stunning winter playground for the rich that has been a magnet for wealthy overseas investors.
Nestled on the shores of a pristine lake on New Zealand’s South Island, and ringed by majestic mountains, Queenstown’s popularity with buyers from Australia, Asia and the U.S. had seen values double in little more than three years. The boom has been brought to an end by a nationwide ban on foreign property buyers the government introduced in October in a bid to make housing more affordable for its own citizens.
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