Half of top-end property buyers are local, wealth agents say, defying golden visa expectations
New Zealand's luxury property market is being shaped as much by low-profile local wealth as by international money, according to agents working the top end of the sector, RNZ reports.
When changes to the Active Investor Plus (AIP) visa scheme took effect in March, many expected a wave of overseas buyers to dominate multimillion-dollar purchases. Instead, Sotheby's International Realty agents Patrick McAteer and Suzanne Browne — who have sold close to $150 million worth of residential property across Auckland's priciest suburbs in the past financial year — say half of their buyers have been New Zealanders.
McAteer describes these buyers as high-net-worth or ultra-high-net-worth individuals who largely avoid public attention.
"We call it surprise and delight. We meet people we've never even heard of before," he said.
McAteer noted many of these buyers made their fortunes offshore and don't appear on New Zealand's public wealth rankings, meaning their true financial position stays largely invisible to the market.
Off-market deals dominate the top end
Cotality chief property economist Kelvin Davidson (pictured) said the very top of the housing market is inherently difficult to track, with many transactions never appearing on public listings at all.
"What you tend to see as you move up through the value echelons is that a lot of the really top end property is never even listed. It's never put on the market," Davidson said, describing such sales as largely word-of-mouth arrangements between agents and buyers.
Slow uptake under the visa scheme
Despite the anticipated surge in offshore interest, uptake under the revamped AIP scheme has been modest. Six months after the changes came into force, only 25 homes had been sold under the visa pathway, even as more than 370 visas were approved out of over 800 applications lodged.
Agents say buyers using the AIP route typically target properties in the $7 million to $10 million range and tend to be highly selective, narrowing the pool of suitable listings considerably once budgets climb into that bracket.
Searches for $5 million-plus homes surged 53% between January and April, with NZSIR's Mark Harris noting that for advisers, "the implications extend well beyond the initial transaction."
For advisers working with high-net-worth clients, the trend underscores how much of the luxury end of the market moves outside conventional channels — a factor worth flagging when structuring finance around off-market or non-standard purchase arrangements.
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