Update - September 2025
The Government has announced its intention to change the Overseas Investment Act to allow overseas based investors with an ‘Active Investor Plus’, Investor 1, or Investor 2 residency visa to buy or build a house valued at $5 million or more.
The Prime Minister’s public statement is available on the New Zealand Government’s website: Change announced for overseas investors | Beehive.govt.nz
The Overseas Investment (National Interest Test and Other Matters) Amendment Bill was introduced into Parliament on 18 June and is expected to be passed into law by the end of 2025.
About the Bill
The Bill amends the Overseas Investment Act to better reflect the benefits international investment can bring to New Zealand’s economy, while providing the appropriate regulatory tools to proportionately manage risks to New Zealand’s national interest.
The scope of what is screened is not proposed to change, but how certain less sensitive assets are screened will. The reforms aim to target screening towards more sensitive transactions, which will make it simpler and faster to invest in New Zealand.
Key changes include:
- consolidating the national interest, benefit to New Zealand, and investor tests into a single test for all assets other than farmland, fishing quota, and residential land (for which the existing consent pathways remain)
- revising the Act’s purpose statement to explicitly acknowledge the role of overseas investment in increasing economic opportunity, while continuing to acknowledge that it is a privilege for overseas persons to own or control sensitive New Zealand assets, and
- requiring that LINZ, as the regulator, grant consent under the national interest pathway within 15 working days unless there are ‘reasonable grounds’ to consider a risk to national interest may exist, in which case a ‘stage two’ full national interest assessment is required.
You can find the Bill on the Parliament website:
Overseas Investment (National Interest Test and Other Matters) Amendment Bill
Overseas investment policy is led by The Treasury, with LINZ providing operational support and advice as the reforms progress.
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