Toughen land laws for foreign buyers: poll
A new poll has shown more than three-quarters of New Zealanders want to make it tougher to sell land to foreigners.
Concern about the sale of land to foreigners heightened as the sale of the 16 former Crafar farms to the Shanghai Pengxin group from China was approved by ministers on advice of the Overseas Investment Office, a sale now on hold following a High Court ruling.
The concern was highlighted by results of a 3 News/Reid Research poll released on Monday, in which 76 per cent of respondents agreed that they if they want rules tightened to make it more difficult for foreigners to buy land if they live overseas.
Just 21 per cent said no, while 3 per cent were undecided.
Supporters of Prime Minister John Key's National Party were nearly as supportive as the overall population, with 69 per cent wanting tighter laws.
Mr Key said on Monday that he acknowledged New Zealanders feel strongly about the issue.
"But it needs to be seen in perspective - in the last 18 months 72 farms have been sold to foreign purchasers and that's out of a total of about 10,000 dairy farms and 35,000 sheep and beef farms."
Mr Key said an OECD study showed New Zealand was one of the most difficult countries to buy land.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the results "show that New Zealanders have got good common sense when it comes to overseas ownership of land".
The Overseas Investment Office, backed by two government ministers, approved the sale of the Crafar farms to Shanghai Pengxin.
But the OIO was told to reconsider its decision after Justice Forrest Miller said in a High Court appeal that the ministers "materially overstated" the economic benefit of the transaction to the New Zealand economy, and applied the wrong test.
