Stats NZ takes over property transfers data from LINZ, expects to paint fuller picture of market

Friday 25th May 2018

Statistics New Zealand will publish statistics on property transfers by all New Zealanders and overseas people from June 7, after taking over the task from Land Information New Zealand.

“As statistical releases are part of Stats NZ’s core business, we’ve worked with LINZ to take over their reporting on property transfers,” property statistics manager Melissa McKenzie said in a release.

LINZ has published quarterly property transfers and tax residency reports since 2016 in order to try and obtain a better picture of the housing market after growing concerns that foreign buyers were pushing up house prices. Its data, however, has consistently pointed to low numbers but it said from the outset the data is not a register of foreign ownership but reports the tax residence, citizenship and visa status of the property buyers and sellers.

Stats NZ said the data will now separate out property transfers to resident-visa holders. Previously these buyers and sellers were in the same category as New Zealand citizens. This additional detail will help provide a fuller picture of who is buying and selling property in New Zealand.

“Some new features of the Stats NZ releases will be the time series of the data, and details of home transfers by their location in New Zealand.”

The latest LINZ data show there were 45,381 property transfers registered from October to December 2017. In 3 percent of the transfers - or 1,599 transfers - at least one of the property buyers provided an overseas tax residency. That 3 percent has remained fairly stable since it began publishing.

(BusinessDesk)

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