As an immigrant New Yorker, I welcome this step and kudos to the local government of NZ for taking such initiative. For example on NYC foreign investors have ruined the prospect for an average hard working New Yorker couple to purchase a property at a reasonable price. Foreign investors (Chinese, Russians and Middle Easterns, nothing personally against all of these demographics) have been pouring in capital via greedy American established real estate management agencies. Often owners do not want to deal with the hassle of loan approval, waiting times etc and they mostly take the offer whoever pays the quickest cash. Same thing is happening in Vancouver and other major metropolitan cities across the nation and the world.