Stats NZ

Property transfer statistics: March 2018 quarter

Property transfer statistics are based mainly on land transfer tax statements. They capture property transfers by New Zealanders and overseas people. This includes information on the citizenship, visa status, or tax residency of people and companies involved in property transfers.   

This release was formerly known as Property transfers and tax residency and released by Land Information New Zealand.

Key facts

  • There were 40,740 property transfers, including 32,880 home transfers, in the March 2018 quarter.
  • 3.3 percent of home transfers were to non-New Zealand citizens or people without a NZ-resident visa.

Home transfers by buyer affiliation

There were 32,880 property transfers involving a home in the March 2018 quarter (down 2.4 percent from the March 2017 quarter).

Looking at the home transfers by buyer affiliation (where known), in the March 2018 quarter:

  • 79 percent involved at least one NZ citizen
  • 9.9 percent involved only corporate entities
  • 8.0 percent involved at least one NZ-resident-visa holder (but no citizens)
  • 3.3 percent involved no NZ citizens or resident-visa holders (up from 2.9 percent in the December 2017 quarter).

Information on the ownership of corporate entities (by New Zealanders or overseas people) is not currently available. This category excludes most trusts, because each trustee must provide information about their citizenship or visa status. Therefore, most trusts are included in the statistics for individuals rather than corporates.

‘No NZ citizens or resident-visa holders’ includes holders of student and work visas, as well as people who cannot live in New Zealand.

The regions with the highest proportions of home transfers involving no NZ citizens or resident-visa holders were:

  • Auckland – 7.3 percent (boosted by Waitemata local board)
  • Otago – 3.6 percent (boosted by Queenstown-Lakes district)
  • Southland – 3.1 percent.

Not all transfers involve a sale. For example, they could involve deceased estates, trustee changes, or marriage settlements. For simplicity, we refer to the transferees and transferors as buyers and sellers.

Total property transfers by tax residency

Including homes, land, and commercial property, there were 40,740 property transfers in the March 2018 quarter (down 2.8 percent from the March 2017 quarter).

Looking at total property transfers by tax residency of the buyers, in the March 2018 quarter:

  • 54 percent involved only NZ tax residents
  • 41 percent involved only buyers who were exempt from stating their tax residency (eg transfers that involved the main home)
  • 3.6 percent involved only NZ tax non-residents
  • 0.7 percent involved both NZ tax residents and non-residents.

Note: Land Information New Zealand previously combined the last two categories into a single category. When combined, this shows a total of 4.3 percent of property transfers where at least one buyer stated an overseas tax residency in the March 2018 quarter (compared with 3.0 percent in the March 2017 quarter).

Most people who are exempt from providing tax details are still required to provide information on their citizenship or visa status.

Created with Highcharts 5.0.14QuarterNumberIn the table, counts below 6 are excluded and show as NaNTotal property transfers by NZ tax residency of buyers, March 2014 to March 2018 quartersOnly NZ tax residentsAt least one NZ tax non-residentAll buyers exempt from stating tax residencyNo tax statement due to contract dateMar-14Jun-14Sep-14Dec-14Mar-15Jun-15Sep-15Dec-15Mar-16Jun-16Sep-16Dec-16Mar-17Jun-17Sep-17Dec-17Mar-18020k40k60kStats NZ

Total property transfers by NZ tax residency of buyers, March 2014 to March 2018 quarters

Created with Highcharts 5.0.14NumberTotal property transfers by NZ tax residency of buyers, March 2014 to March 2018 quartersOnly NZ tax residentsAt least one NZ tax non-residentAll buyers exempt from stating tax residencyNo tax statement due to contract dateMar-14Jun-14Sep-14Dec-14Mar-15Jun-15Sep-15Dec-15Mar-16Jun-16Sep-16Dec-16Mar-17Jun-17Sep-17Dec-17Mar-18020k40k60kStats NZ
QuarterOnly NZ tax residentsAt least one NZ tax non-residentAll buyers exempt from stating tax residencyNo tax statement due to contract date
Mar-14NaNNaNNaN31,623
Jun-14NaNNaNNaN38,370
Sep-14NaNNaNNaN36,279
Dec-14NaNNaNNaN40,638
Mar-15NaNNaNNaN37,986
Jun-15NaNNaNNaN47,082
Sep-15NaNNaNNaN50,802
Dec-1515,51953411,55025,548
Mar-1622,5631,16116,6264,773
Jun-1634,5121,75221,198225
Sep-1632,5831,43719,980NaN
Dec-1629,6581,12820,031NaN
Mar-1723,8651,27516,782NaN
Jun-1727,4711,51519,620NaN
Sep-1724,7261,29317,280NaN
Dec-1725,2871,60518,492NaN
Mar-1822,1281,74316,869NaN

The overseas tax residences most commonly stated by non-exempt buyers were:

  • China – 504 transfers where no other tax residence was stated
  • Australia – 381
  • United Kingdom – 90
  • Hong Kong – 78.

Tax residency is not the same as nationality. An overseas tax resident may be a NZ citizen living overseas. Alternatively, a NZ tax resident could be an overseas citizen who lives in New Zealand, or a company with overseas owners.

Stats NZ releases property transfer statistics

Stats NZ’s release of these statistics was announced on 25 May 2018.

Stats NZ has taken over the analysis and publication of property transfer statistics from Land Information New Zealand (LINZ). LINZ produced the quarterly Property transfers and tax residency reports from 2016, and has helped Stats NZ replicate their methodology and enhance the data series. For the March 2018 quarter, we validated our statistics against numbers produced independently by LINZ to ensure accurate replication of their methodology.

Property transfer statistics are mainly based on land transfer tax statements, which are completed for tax administration and housing policy purposes.

See Definitions and metadata for information on the methodology used to produce property transfer statistics, and changes to the collection now they are produced by Stats NZ.

More data

Use Infoshare for property transfer statistics tables:

Subject category: People and communities
Group: Property transfer statistics – PTS

Definitions and metadata

Property transfer statistics frequently asked questions – DataInfo+ answers some common queries.

Property transfer statistics – DataInfo+ gives the general methodology used to produce property transfer statistics.

Property transfer statistics data collection – DataInfo+ gives the data collection methodology used to produce property transfer statistics.

Property transfer statistics concept set – DataInfo+ gives the definitions of terms and concepts used in this release.

ISSN 2624-0424

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