Australians searching for New Zealand homes nearly triple after Australia cuts property tax breaks

The number of people in Australia looking at New Zealand homes for sale has almost tripled on a year ago, and the country’s biggest property website says it is more than idle curiosity. Figures released by Realestate.co.nz on 18 September show Australia-based users of the site rose by almost 190 percent year on year in August, after a 163 percent jump in May when Australia announced it would cut back the tax breaks that have long made rental property a favourite investment across the Tasman.

The site’s chief executive, Sarah Wood, said the jump in traffic was matched by what those visitors were doing once they arrived. She told RNZ that property enquiries from Australians were up 54.7 percent in August, and the number of listings they saved was up 44.3 percent.

“We expected the announcement to have a flow-on effect to New Zealand, but the scale and speed of the shift has been striking. Australians aren’t just browsing – they’re searching, saving properties and making enquiries at levels well above what we were seeing a year ago,” Wood said in the company’s release.

The change in Australia came in its federal Budget on 12 May. From 1 July 2027, investors who bought established homes after Budget night will no longer be able to use negative gearing, the rule that lets landlords deduct rental losses from their salary and other income. Those losses will instead be ring-fenced against rental income and future property gains. The 50 percent discount on capital gains is also being replaced with inflation indexation of the purchase price and a minimum 30 percent tax on net gains. New builds keep the old treatment. Law firm Baker McKenzie notes the bill carrying the changes passed the Australian Senate on 25 June, so the reforms are now law rather than a proposal.

New Zealand has no general capital gains tax, although it has its own bright-line test on homes sold within two years. When the Australian Budget landed in May, one Sydney newspaper went as far as calling New Zealand a tax haven. The new search figures are the first hard sign of whether Australian investors are actually acting on that view.

Unlike most overseas buyers, Australians face few legal barriers. New Zealand has banned most foreign buyers from purchasing existing homes since 2018, but Land Information New Zealand guidance says Australian and Singaporean citizens do not need consent to buy a house or land classed as residential or lifestyle. Consent can still be required for sensitive land, such as sections next to a beach or lake, if the buyer is not ordinarily resident here.

The exchange rate also works in their favour. Wood told RNZ that five years ago the two currencies were “almost dollar for dollar” and that the figure is now $1.24, meaning an Australian dollar goes noticeably further in a New Zealand open home than it once did.

Auckland, Central Otago and the Lakes District, and Canterbury drew the most Australian attention, and most of those searches were for houses rather than apartments or sections. Those are also regions where buyers have plenty of choice. Realestate.co.nz said Auckland stock was up 11.5 percent on a year earlier in August, while Central Otago and the Lakes District and Canterbury were among just four regions where new listings rose, up 1.9 percent and 3.6 percent respectively.

Sydney accounted for the largest rise in users after the tax announcement, up 121.3 percent. Visitors from Brisbane and Perth grew more slowly, up 41.5 percent and 40.8 percent, but the company said they were looking harder, recording more sessions and saving more properties per person than Sydney users.

“Traffic numbers tell us we’ve caught their attention. What they do on-site tells us much more,” Wood said. “When people are coming back, saving properties and making enquiries, we’re seeing behaviour that goes beyond a passing curiosity about what their money might buy across the Tasman.”

The interest arrives in a market that has been short of buyers. Realestate.co.nz’s own figures showed 32,908 homes listed for sale at the end of August, a 12-year high for the time of year. The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand reported a national median sale price of $750,000 in August, down 1.3 percent on a year earlier, with sales down 13 percent and homes taking a median 51 days to sell. In Auckland the median wait was 54 days.

Wood described the pitch plainly. “A strong supply of homes available, relatively flat prices and a favourable exchange rate will be of real appeal for those looking from over the ditch,” she said, adding that “while more competition from across the ditch might not be what every Kiwi buyer wants to hear, additional buyer interest could be welcome news for vendors.”

There are limits to what website traffic can show. A 190 percent rise in Australian visitors starts from a small base, and searching, saving and even enquiring is a long way from signing a sale and purchase agreement. Realestate.co.nz has not published how many Australians have actually bought, and New Zealand’s official property transfer statistics, which record buyers’ citizenship, lag the market by months. An Australian who buys here also still has New Zealand tax to consider, including the bright-line test, interest deductibility rules for rentals, and the fact that New Zealand rental yields are not always generous next to mortgage costs.

The timing matters too. Negative gearing for established Australian homes bought after 12 May does not disappear until July 2027, so investors have time to weigh their options, and some of this interest may be people pricing up the alternative rather than preparing to move money. The next few months of spring listings, and the first property transfer figures covering the post-Budget period, will show whether the surge in clicks becomes a surge in sales.

For New Zealand sellers sitting on unsold homes, any extra buyer is good news. For first home buyers who have enjoyed a quieter market with more room to negotiate, Australian investors with a stronger currency and a fresh reason to look east may be less welcome.

Would you welcome Australian investors into the New Zealand housing market, or do you think it will make it harder for local buyers? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂