Changes to the Overseas Investment Act for AIP residency visa holders

On 1 September 2025 the Government announced it was making changes to the Overseas Investment Act 2005 (Act) to allow holders of an AIP visa to buy a house in New Zealand.

These changes will allow holders of an “Active Investor Plus” residency visa (AIP Visa) to buy or build one home, provided the minimum value of the house that can be bought or built is over NZ$5 million.

The Government considers these changes will encourage more high net worth overseas investors to apply for an AIP Visa. At the same time, the Government considers the changes will not affect the wider housing market for New Zealanders – as only 1% of New Zealand homes are above the NZ$5 million threshold.

AIP Visa

Since 1 April 2025 an overseas person can apply to obtain an AIP Visa (often referred to as a “Golden Visa”) under two different categories:

• Growth Category: Applicants must invest NZ$5 million in approved managed funds and/or direct investments and must spend at least 21 days in New Zealand over a 3 year period.
• Balanced Category: Applicants must invest NZ$10 million in acceptable investments and spend at least 105 days in New Zealand over a 5 year period.

The AIP Visa category aims to incentivise direct investment and encourage greater economic benefit to New Zealand.

There have been 301 AIP Visa applications. The Government advises that if all these applications were approved and proceeded, then there could be a total minimum investment of NZ$1.8 billion into New Zealand’s economy.

Prior to these changes to the Act, a holder of an AIP Visa would need to spend 6 months a year in New Zealand before they could buy a house.

Some commentators considered these restrictions were discouraging AIP Visa applications – as some overseas investors would want to quickly buy a house to live and become part of the community.

Further details

The Government still needs to release details relating to these changes. Including:

• when the changes in law will come into effect.
• confirmation that an overseas investor will not need to become New Zealand tax resident.
• how the NZ$5 million value threshold will be determined for the house to be bought or built. Especially when a house is to be built but the bare land is less than NZ$5 million at the date of purchase.
• will the changes in law only apply narrowly to “residential (but not otherwise sensitive) land” (e.g. will it only apply to standard houses, lots or apartments). This narrow application is similar to the exemptions to the Act that allow certain Australian and Singaporean investors to buy residential land in New Zealand.

This last point will be of special interest to overseas investors wanting to buy a house or a parcel of land that has other sensitivities under the Act.  Such as a house or parcel of land that is of a certain size and adjoins foreshore/lakebed or also includes an interest in over 5ha of non-urban land.  For example, a house that is a part of a “farm park” or “common land” type subdivisions where the owner of the house also has an ownership interest in communally owned open space land. These subdivisions are relatively common in parts of Queenstown, Wanaka, Hawkes Bay and Northland.

Want to know more?

If you have any questions about these changes, please contact our specialist Overseas Investment Team.

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