New Zealand introduces rules to cool its red-hot housing market
Al Jazeera
Record-low housing affordability is a crucial issue for the government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
New Zealand is introducing rules designed to make property speculation less appealing and improve record low housing affordability, an important issue for the government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as she aims to cool the country’s red-hot housing market.
The draft new law limits property investors from deducting mortgage interest from their taxable incomes and will take effect from October 1. The step, first announced in March, is part of series of real estate measures introduced in the South Pacific nation of five million.
“Tax is neither the cause nor the solution to the housing problem, but it does have an influence, and this is part of the Government’s overall response,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in a statement.
