Americans buying up NZ after Trump win

"Post-election, they're pushing the button" - Ollie Wall

Anti-Trump Americans have engaged New Zealand's top residential agency to find properties here.

Ollie Wall of Graham Wall Real Estate - which regularly set records selling New Zealand's most expensive homes - said Americans wanted their slice of "paradise" and interest had increased rapidly in the last few months as Donald Trump's popularity increased.

The agency had found one spectacular site near Queenstown for an American who paid $13 million-plus, he said, while a Silicon Valley billionaire wanted property here for "security of water, being able to control your immigrants, the safest place in the world", Wall said.

A number of Americans wanted sites for a string of luxury tourism lodges, golf courses, hotels, other business ventures and homes, said Wall, the son of agency founder Graham Wall.

"Post-election, they're pushing the button," Wall said of the trend. "People were keen but after the election, they said 'let's press go.' They'll create new assets, jobs and growth," he said.

One client asked to see sites throughout the country "all over the place", with the potential to develop a new lodge chain, he said.

"Americans quite like the idea of lifestyle stuff," he said, citing hunting lodges and golf courses. "Some of them want huge chunks of land to turn into something even more beautiful. It's about owning their own piece of New Zealand," he said.

They regarded New Zealand as safe, secure and stable and they knew about earthquakes but this did not deter them, Wall said.

The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa opposes sales to foreigners, saying "the independence of most countries is being eroded. This erosion has taken place because most of the world's economy is now owned and controlled by a relatively small number of huge translational corporations."

One of this year's biggest Auckland residential sales was to an American. The sale of 13 Burwood Cres for $18 million set the national record at the time for the house built recently by Aucklanders Warren and Sarah Couillault.