Missed opportunity to collect foreign home ownership data

The Government missed an opportunity in this year’s Budget to resource Statistics NZ to collect data on home ownership by overseas buyers, Labour’s Statistics spokesperson Raymond Huo says.

“The Government will not acknowledge something must be done about overseas home ownership pushing up property prices. National says the level of foreign ownership is unknown.

“However, its only flimsy argument for not collecting this data is that it would cost money.

“Although Labour believes this cost would be manageable, this year’s Budget was the perfect opportunity for the Government to ensure those costs were funded.

“Statistics NZ does not collect any data on who is buying up residential properties and the Overseas Investment Office only ‘monitors’ purchases of sensitive land and significant business assets.

“A Fairfax Media poll yesterday found 76.4 per cent of Kiwis wanted the Government to do something for first home buyers in this year’s Budget.

“However, Finance Minister Bill English had nothing to help Kiwis obtain the dream of home ownership which is slipping further and further out of reach.

“If National cared about helping first home buyers, it would at least collect the information it needs to make effective policies,” Raymond Huo says.

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