And finally…New Zealand bans foreign house buyers

If you’re thinking about moving to New Zealand, then you might want to think again after the country’s government outlawed the sale of residential property to foreigners yesterday.

The extreme measure has been taken to cool the country’s soaring property prices, prime minister-elect Jacinda Ardern said.

She said the ban only applied to non-residents and is necessary because the country is facing a housing affordability crisis which has left home ownership impossible for many natives.

Low interest rates, limited housing stock and immigration have driven up prices in recent years.

Chinese investors have been among the biggest offshore buyers of property in the New Zealand market.

A recent survey by property consultants Knight Frank revealed that annual house price growth in New Zealand was 10.4 per cent, pushing it from 3rd to 10th place in the ranking of 55 housing markets.

Prices in the capital, Wellington, rose 18.1 per cent in the year to June 2017.

Residential prices in Auckland, the country’s largest city, rose 9.8 per cent over the same period.

The median price for residential property in Auckland is $845,000 ($582,662; £443,554), according to data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

Foreign ownership and a housing shortage in New Zealand’s bigger cities were prominent issues in the run-up to the September election, which saw the end of nine years of rule by the conservative National Party.

“We have agreed on banning the purchase of existing homes by foreign buyers,” Ms Ardern said on Tuesday, while also announcing plans to slash immigration and focus on job creation.

The prime minister-elect has previously described capitalism as a “blatant failure” when it came to providing homes for the poor.