Overseas radio advertisements for NZ property are claiming that foreign purchasers can count on collecting half the weekly wages (about $500) off renters. The ads are being run in Singapore, China and Malaysia.

Singapore’s 90.5 Gold radio station plays the ad, asking listeners: “How would you like the people in New Zealand to give you around half their weekly wages?”.

New Zealander Rachael Cooper, living in Malaysia, posted part of the radio advert on her Facebook page.

“There are many people investing because of the high demand for rents,” the advert states. “There’s no stamp duty, no land tax, and within New Zealand, generally no capital gains tax either. It’s an investor’s dream.”

In spite of record high prices for Auckland real estate, Housing Minister Nick Smith said overseas buyers were not a big problem. Smith says-

“The cheapest trick in the book is to say it’s all the foreigners’ fault. Actually, the main solution to our housing issue in Auckland is increasing the number of houses that we’re building”

Nick Smith has a reputation as a long term trougher who seldom gets anything right and he’s not doing that reputation any harm by speaking such unmitigated rubbish on this occasion.

Companies are marketing NZ real estate as an “investor’s dream” to about one billion people and its all going to be fixed by building more houses. Utter lunacy.