The coalition government’s new
“golden visa” for investors – which came into being at the
start of April – appears to be attracting significant
interest.
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise said in two
weeks from the end of March, 2,500 people visited the Active
Investor Plus Visa application page – an increase of over
700 percent on the numbers visiting the old investor visa
application at the same time last year.
The new
version of the investor visa has two simplified
categories, the scope of acceptable investments is extended
and the previous English language requirements are
removed.
The chief executive of Malcolm Immigration
David Cooper told Nine to Noon the timing of the
revamped opportunity was ideal, and they had seen huge
amounts of interest during recent overseas trips.
“We
had great attendance at events in four cities in Germany, as
well as in Hong Kong and Singapore.
“There were also
events in held by NZT in New York and San Francisco, and
very well attended by people who aren’t just talking, who
are actually committing.
“In fact, as of last Friday –
so less than two weeks since this visa opened – Immigration
New Zealand have received 43 applications.”
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Cooper
said in the last two and a half years under the old policy
100 applications were received.
The minimum investment
for the ‘Growth’ investment category is $5 million for a
minimum period of three years.
The ‘Balanced’
investment category requires a minimum investment of $10
million over five years.
Cooper said there were three
main things that “made up the perfect storm”.
“The
first one was that Erica Standford, Minister of Immigration,
was prepared to change the settings – that was a huge
shift.
“We’ve got the geo-political situation going on
around the globe and then we’ve got countries like Australia
who have closed their investor visa, Canada is marginally
open, Brits are closed, Europe is closing a lot of their
golden visa programmes…”
Cooper said unlike
Australia, Immigration New Zealand did a “very good job of
tracing the money”, but said the country still needed to
work on “harnessing the talents after hopping of
747’s”.
He believes by the end of May, Immigration New
Zealand could receive up to 100 applications.
“I think
we will be seeing 400 to 500, possibly 600 applications a
year easily,” he said.
Immigration Minister Erica
Stanford said in February the change meant investors would
only have to remain in New Zealand for 21 days over three
years to gain residency.
Stanford told Morning
Report back in February that the “biggest barrier is
saying to them, you’ve got to spend 10 weeks a year here, or
whatever it is”.
“Why would you force them to be
somewhere they don’t want to be for the first couple of
years?”
She acknowledged the visa programme was one of
the most expensive in the world, so we had to “have some
other things that encourage people to come
here.”
Stanford said once people saw it was only a
week a year for the first three years, “they’re more
interested in coming. We get them in the
door.”
Immigration lawyer Nick Mason also told
Morning Report in February there had always been a
lot of interest in coming to New Zealand, but people were
being turned away under the previous active investor
category.
“The previous category was just too hard.
There were too many hoops to jump through. This will make it
much easier.”
“There’s no guarantee that people won’t
just be passive and that sort of stuff. But we can’t let the
perfect be the enemy of the good. And so ultimately, I think
it’s a great thing for the economy.”
Mason told RNZ
the foreign buyer ban remained a sticking point for
prospective investors.
The 2018 ban on foreign home
ownership remains in place as part of New Zealand First’s
coalition agreement with National, though Winston Peters has
hinted he was open to foreigners purchasing property if they
invest big bucks
onshore.
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