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Why you are not allowed to buy a house in New Zealand straight away

Since 2018 foreigners have not been allowed to buy an existing home in New Zealand. On a work visa it isn't possible at all; with a resident visa only after you have lived there for twelve months — or earlier, with paid consent. That is not advice but a law, and you plan your first year around it.

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Written and checked by Auke on , against the sources at the bottom. Is something no longer right? Report it below and I'll fix it.

No, as a foreigner you have not been allowed to buy an existing home in New Zealand since 2018. That is not advice but law:

  • On a work visa it isn't possible at all.
  • With a residence visa, only once you are "ordinarily resident" (a settled resident): after twelve months of living there and more than 183 days of presence.
  • Earlier is only possible with paid consent from Toitū Te Whenua (Land Information New Zealand, the agency that screens overseas purchases), for one home to live in yourself. The application costs NZ$ 2,040.

By now Australia has something similar: there, existing homes are closed until mid-2029 to anyone without permanent status.

The pitfall is the news. The exception of March 2026 for investor visas is passed around as "the ban has been lifted", and it hasn't.

In your first year you don't buy. You rent, you get to know the neighbourhood and the school zone, and only then do you decide (why that order is fixed). That is advice you are free to set aside. In New Zealand things are different: there you usually simply aren't allowed.

May I buy a house in New Zealand as a foreigner?

Since 2018 New Zealand has had one of the stricter regimes in the world for foreign ownership of homes. The main rule of the Overseas Investment Act, the law on foreign investment, is short: an overseas person (a foreign buyer) may not buy an existing New Zealand home.

Who may buy without consent?

  • New Zealand citizens, whether they live there or not
  • holders of a resident visa who are "ordinarily resident" (see below)
  • Australians and Singaporeans, for homes and lifestyle blocks

And who may not? Everyone on a temporary visa: a visitor visa, a student visa and a work visa. That last one is the important one: it is precisely the way most Dutch people enter New Zealand.

When am I "ordinarily resident"?

The term sounds vague but isn't. To count as ordinarily resident you have to meet all three of these requirements:

  1. you hold a resident visa (residence class visa)
  2. you have lived in New Zealand for the past twelve months, counted back from the day you sign the purchase agreement
  3. you are a tax resident because you were personally present in New Zealand for more than 183 days in those twelve months

Only then do you buy freely, like any other resident. If you are married or have a partner, only one of you needs to meet the rules.

If you do hold a resident visa but aren't yet at those twelve months, there is a middle way. You may buy one home to live in yourself, provided you obtain consent from Toitū Te Whenua before the purchase.

Item Rule or amount
Application fee, ordinary residential land NZ$ 2,040
Application fee, residential land that is also "sensitive" NZ$ 16,900
Decision time up to 10 working days (sensitive land: up to 30)
Validity of pre-approved consent 1 year
Move in after settlement within 3 months
Presence per twelve months more than 183 days
Penalty for buying without consent NZ$ 5,000 (under NZ$ 2 million) or NZ$ 10,000
Rental bond at most 4 weeks' rent
Pet bond (since 1 December 2025) at most 2 weeks' rent
Landlord must lodge the bond within 23 working days

Apply for the consent in advance as pre-approval, consent you already have before you have a home in view:

  • It lasts a year and costs nothing extra.
  • At an auction you may not even bid without pre-approval.

If you sign a purchase agreement before the consent, it must be expressly conditional on consent. It applies to one home, to live in yourself, and not to an investment property.

Rather have everything for New Zealand on one list?

Then we'll send you the departure checklist for New Zealand, with every step in order, and five mails about the pitfalls and the real costs. You can switch it off at any time.

We use your address, and your departure date if you fill it in, only for the checklist, the guide and the mails after it. You can unsubscribe under every mail.

What changed in March 2026?

Since March 2026 holders of an investor visa may buy or build one home worth more than NZ$ 5 million. This covers the Active Investor Plus visa and the old Investor 1 and Investor 2 visas. That is a narrow exception for a small group of investors.

For everyone outside it nothing changes: overseas persons still cannot buy an existing New Zealand home. So be wary of reports along the lines of "the ban has been lifted". It hasn't.

How does renting work in the first year?

Count on at least a year of renting, and that is no disaster. It is precisely the year in which you find out which neighbourhood you want to live in, how far the drive really is, and whether the school you wanted to enrol your child at falls within the right zone.

Know the rental rules while you're at it, because they are clearer than in the Netherlands:

  • the bond is at most four weeks' rent
  • on top of that a pet bond of at most two weeks' rent may be asked, if the landlord has allowed the pet
  • the landlord has to lodge the bond with Tenancy Services, the government's tenancy service, within 23 working days

That last one is your means of checking. If your bond isn't registered there, something is wrong. And you want to know that before you move in, not when you ask for it back.

What does this mean for my planning?

Because you rent anyway and because where you live determines your school zone, the order in your first year is: first temporary, then deliberate. First rent something short-term in the region where you work, look around, and then choose the neighbourhood.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but applied to your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines monitored. See the whole journey to New Zealand.

Want to know more about this?

Then we'll send you the departure checklist for New Zealand, with every step in order, and five mails about the pitfalls and the real costs. You can switch it off at any time.

We use your address, and your departure date if you fill it in, only for the checklist, the guide and the mails after it. You can unsubscribe under every mail.

What this rests on

The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.

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