The overseas owners of two Warkworth properties have been fined $2.95 million after an Overseas Investment Office (OIO) investigation found they were bought illegally.
The owners – Chinese businessmen Zhongliang Hong and Xueli Ke, and IRL Investment Limited and Grand Energetic Company Limited (which are owned by Hong and Ke) – were ordered by the court to sell the properties and pay penalties, costs and the gain made on the investment.
The two properties, 185 Sandspit Road and Kourawhero Lodge at 471 Wyllie Road, were purchased in 2014 and 2012 respectively.
Because both properties are rural land of more than five hectares, the owners should have applied to the OIO for consent to purchase them.
Vanessa Horne, Land Information New Zealand Group Manager, Overseas Investment Office, said the penalties recognised the significant breach of the Overseas Investment Act.