LINZ releases latest property data

LINZ releases latest property data

Land Information New Zealand’s latest property data report shows property transfers involving overseas tax residents, as well as those involving overseas citizens and residents, were at similar levels to previous quarters.

LINZ Deputy Chief Executive Russell Turner says these figures are gathered by LINZ for property tax purposes and are released each quarter.

Tax residency of buyers and sellers

Covering April to June 2017, the report shows 3 percent of all property transfers involved overseas tax resident buyers and 3 percent involved overseas tax resident sellers. The same proportions were recorded in the January to March 2017 quarter. Of the remaining transfers over April-June:

• 57 percent of transfers involved buyers who have only New Zealand tax residency. This was the same in January to March.

• 40 percent involved buyers who did not need to provide tax information – the majority of these were New Zealand citizens or residents who are buying their main home. This was the same in January to March.

Citizenship and residency of buyers and sellers

“Last year we made improvements that mean that in addition to information on the tax residency of buyers and sellers, we also have better data about their citizenship and residency for housing policy purposes. This is available for 99 percent of property transfers carried out from April to June,” says Mr Turner.

Citizenship and residency results for buyers in April to June were the same as the previous quarter:

• For 82 percent of transfers, one or more buyers involved were New Zealand citizens or residents.
• For 2 percent of transfers, none of the buyers had New Zealand citizenship or residency although a proportion had student or work visas.
• For 16 percent of transfers, all buyers involved represented corporate or business entities. For almost all of these entities, all parties were New Zealand tax residents.

April to June citizenship and residency results for sellers:

• For 75 percent of transfers, one or more of the sellers involved were New Zealand citizens or residents. This was 76 percent in January to March.
• For 1 percent of transfers, none of the sellers involved had New Zealand citizenship or residency.This was the same in January to March.
• For 24 percent of transfers, all sellers involved represented corporate or business entities. This was 23 percent in January to March.

Read the latest report on property transfers and tax residency on the LINZ website.

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