International Buyers Of New Zealand Land

United States citizens and companies are buying up New Zealand land for farming, forestry and wine-making. Almost 180,000 hectares of farming land was purchased or leased between 2010 and 2021 and in that period nearly 460,000ha – approximately the size of the Auckland region – moved out of New Zealand control. More than 70,000ha was bought for dairying, 100,000ha for farming beef, sheep or deer. Then 178,000ha of forestry land went to international buyers and around 8000ha for wine making. 53,000ha, was sold or leased to people intending to reside in New Zealand. These ranged from one hectare to 40,000ha in Canterbury. Of the foreign sales, the biggest proportion of land – 39 per cent – was purchased for forestry. 16 per cent for Dairy operations and 22% for other types of farming.