NPR

New Zealand Bans Home Sales To Most Foreigners: 'It's Not A Right, It's A Privilege'

Squeezed by high prices and low homeownership, the country's housing market has become a big concern for New Zealanders. As part of their solution, lawmakers took aim at buyers beyond their borders.
A plot of land for sale in Auckland, New Zealand, seen in 2015. At the time, the choice sliver of land — which measured just a tenth of an acre — was on sale for $840,000.

Determined to combat New Zealand's lofty housing prices, the country's lawmakers have trained their aim at a distant target: the buyers beyond their borders. By a close vote Wednesday, the Parliament passed a law banning most nonresident foreigners from purchasing existing homes or residential land.

The goal is simple, according to the bill's backers: to correct a domestic housing market that

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