Anthony Morsinkhof: luxury real estate agent pens open letter urging Government to lift foreign buyer ban

An open letter has been written to the Prime Minister urging Luxon to ease the ban on foreign house buyers.

This letter comes after multiple NBR Rich Listers told NBR that making it easier for foreign investors to buy homes here would make New Zealand a better place to do business.

Luxury property real estate agent Anthony Morsinkhof provided the open letter - and he says he has clients looking to invest in New Zealand.

"I've got clients there that want to invest into big land developments for residential houses, I've got a biotech company that wants to come to New Zealand  - I've got a lot of different sorts of people who want to invest here in New Zealand and they want to buy properties." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, a luxury real estate agent is calling on the
Prime Minister to lift the ban on foreign home buyers.
He's written an open letter saying that he has clients
wanting to invest millions of dollars in New Zealand, but
they can't because they can't buy homes here. Anthony Morsenoff
is with us now.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, Anthony, Hi, thank you for having me on your show.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yeah, thanks very much for joining us. Now, I understand
you've got one ultra high net worth individual in particular
that you are representing. Is that right?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I've got multiple I've got a whole series at Forbes
Forbes Global Properties. We deal with one of the largest
databases of ultra high networth people in the world, and
there's quite a number of those that have property investment
portfolios around the world. They'd love to include New Zealand
in that portfolio and they are having. The current legislation

(00:51):
that we're dealing with is good for corporates, but it's
not good for the owners of those corporates because so
they want to come here and invest into New Zealand,
they can buy a house or they have to wait
three years, which is just not practical. People walking away how.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Much do you reckon is sitting out there and just
on your books wanting to come in money wise but can't.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
I would have easy five hundred million dollars of people
wanting to invest in New Zealand, and I mean easy.
I've got clients there that want to invest into big
land developments for residential houses. I've got to buy a
tech company that wants to come to New Zealand. So
I've got a lot of different sort of people that

(01:36):
want to invest here in New Zealand and they want
to buy properties, not only in Auckland. These are not
only Auckland buyers. These are people that want to buy
also in the country. We'd often, you know, we get
homes that are worth let's say four or five million
dollars and they can't, and they would be really good

(01:57):
to adding to the people in the countryside that they
get the people in the countries. I get additional income
from these people buying these properties they can't.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
How long do you reckon We've because obviously Australia's are
doing the old ban on the foreign buyers, and there's
also talk about the wealth tax and stuff like that.
So how long have we got do you think to
cut Australia's lunch.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
I think that may change, but at the current moment,
I don't see that. I think we've got a short
time period with everything what's happening in the United States
and over in Europe. Those are the people at the
moment are looking at New Zealand. It's a safe haven
and we've got a lot to offer as New Zealand
for those people. But at the same time, those people
have got a lot to offer to New Zealand. You know,

(02:40):
they offer employment, they bring tech skills, they bring investment
to companies here, and we're not letting them buy a house.
It's too crazy for words.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
All right, Listen, you've spoken to the Prime Minister about it.
Any indication it's going to change.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
He said to me personally, he says, about half a
year ago, watch this space, and I've had That was
November last year at a at a meeting with him,
and since then, I've watched that space and I've talked
to other ministers. I've talked to members of Parliament. I've
had clients talk to ministers, and everything seems to be

(03:15):
on hold. Nobody's doing anything.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
We're still watching the space. Okay, listen. Thank you very much, Anthony,
I really appreciate your time. Anthony morzenkof Luxury real estate agent.
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