New Zealand Beckons as Europe Plays Harder to Get With ‘Golden Visas’

New Zealand is trying to attract more foreigners who can boost the country’s economy. Here: Mission Bay beach in Auckland. (Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Key Points

• New Zealand simplified its investment visa requirements in April, leading to 370 applications and NZ$2.2 billion in investments.
• Applications from the U.S. for New Zealand’s investment visa program increased to 37% this year, up from 26% last year.
• New Zealand aims to attract wealthy investors to boost its economy, which contracted by 1.1% for the fiscal year ending in March.

At a time when countries outside the U.S. are tightening requirements for investment visas—or scrapping them altogether—New Zealand is opening its doors.

Wealthy Americans are gladly walking in to the country that Rough Guide readers voted in 2024 as the most beautiful in the world.

In April, New Zealand simplified, and eased, its investment visa requirements for a path to permanent residency and unleashed a wave of interest. Nearly 370 applications have been submitted since the new program went into effect April 1—up from 65 who applied to the previous program last year—and 244 have been “approved in principle” for a total investment of NZ$2.2 billion ($1.3 billion), according to Immigration New Zealand. Of those who applied this year, 37% are from the U.S., up from 26% last year.

By streamlining its “Active Investor Plus” visa, New Zealand aims to attract more foreigners who can boost the country’s economy. New Zealand’s GDP had contracted to recession levels during the second and third quarters of 2024. Signs of a recovery are now underway, with growth of 1.4% forecast this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

“We are interested in people who have incredible talents, who have skills and expertise and connections and who can help take Kiwi businesses to the world,” says Erica Stanford, New Zealand’s Minister of Immigration, using a nickname for New Zealanders after the flightless, native bird.

It’s not only New Zealand’s revised requirements that are a draw. Countries such as Portugal and Greece have tightened their requirements for investment visas—also known as Golden Visas—while Spain and Ireland have eliminated them entirely.

Some governments say investment visas exacerbate a lack of affordable housing in these countries, and the European Commission has pressured members to restrict programs because of possible security gaps in granting residency or citizenship on the basis of investment and the “risks of money laundering, corruption, and tax evasion.”

New Zealand, however, views wealthy investors as providing a shot in the arm for its economy. Stanford was in the U.S. recently, making the case for New Zealand. The new streamlined investor categories are a selling point, as is an expected upcoming change to the country’s rules that will allow foreigners to buy a home that costs at least NZ$5 million—a level intended to ensure the purchases don’t affect housing prices for most of the population. A 2018 ban prohibited most investor visa holders from buying property entirely unless they lived in the country for at least six months a year.

“If you allow these investors to buy homes they will spend more time [in New Zealand], and when they spend more time here, they get to love the country more, and know the people more, and get to know the ecosystem more, and will be more likely to…invest in ventures around them and their local communities,” Stanford told Barron’s in an interview.

As Stanford suggests, a big draw for foreigners to New Zealand is the country itself. Sitting at the bottom of the world, about 1,200 miles from the east coast of Australia, New Zealand is far. But the beauty of its coastlines, mountains, and verdant countryside are a draw as is “the pace of life, its security and safety, and [New Zealand’s] strong democracy,” she says.

Previously, the country’s distance from the rest of the world had been an issue, but it’s actually drawing people to the country now, Stanford says. Not only do more direct flights to the country, and the internet, make it feel less remote, the physical distance works in their favor.

“People are interested in being somewhere that is slightly further away at the bottom of the world, that is totally connected but feels safe and secure…away from the noise,” she says.

Stuart Nash, a former member of New Zealand’s Labour cabinet during Jacinda Ardern’s term as prime minister—and architect of the previous, more restrictive visa—puts it more directly. “Geographically, New Zealand is far from the war in Europe, the tinder-box that is the Middle East, the sabre-rattling in the South China Sea, and the domestic politics in the U.S.A.,” Nash, CEO of Nash Kelly Global—a New Zealand immigration advisory firm for the ultra wealthy—said in an email.

Most applicants—75% of Nash’s business comes from the U.S.—are looking for this kind of “plan B,” meaning, a country they can live in if they don’t want to stay in their home country. He says that once a visa holder receives New Zealand permanent residency, it’s for life, and they can keep their U.S. citizenship.

Jon Nash, a managing partner at Meadowlark Advisors—a U.S. corporate crisis management and restructuring firm—is a U.S. citizen who has lived in New Zealand for seven years with his wife and children, now aged 10 and 12. They became residents through a previous investor visa program, choosing to move overseas to expose their children to the global economy at an early age.

They chose New Zealand, recalls Nash (who isn’t related to Stuart Nash), because of its abundant sunshine, the fact it’s an English speaking country, and because they were seeking a functioning society governed by rule of law or a democratic political system.

Nash and his family hadn’t visited New Zealand before applying for the visa, but once the process was underway they made several trips, staying in various neighborhoods throughout Auckland and in other places to get a “real view of the country and how it works,” he says.

Attractions have included “excellent and free health care” for their children (until age 13), and a warm, welcoming population. Although the time zone differences are challenging—New Zealand can be as much as 18 hours ahead of New York—they are fairly easy to work around, and provide the bonus of kid-free, work-free Mondays when children are in school but it’s still Sunday in the U.S., Nash says.

As a business owner, Nash has observed how “global interconnectedness is changing the way that countries like New Zealand can export and can work with economies around the world.”

The fact that there’s a large diaspora of New Zealanders living around the world, engaged in various businesses, also helps. “Being in New Zealand helps me and my business. It helps me diversify, and gain a lot of contacts that are pretty amazing.”

Stuart Nash, the immigration advisor for the ultra wealthy, has “very definitely” seen an uptick in business from the U.S. since the Active Investor Visa program was revised.

“It is hard to know if this is a result of the new visa settings or a result of the current domestic situation in the U.S.—probably a bit of both to be honest, as many of the conditions deemed ‘complex’ under the original visa were easily navigated by sophisticated U.S. investors,” Nash said.

Their motivations, he said, are yes, to have a “plan B” but also to take advantage of New Zealand’s lifestyle.

“World class golf courses, a safe environment to bring up a family, an extremely robust banking system and very little corruption, a great education and health care system, a democratic stable government and a judiciary that has incredible integrity,” he said. “It’s easy to do business, live well, and feel safe.”

Write to Abby Schultz at abby.schultz@barrons.com