– ‘Can\u2019t find my husband, but have found a buyer’ – giant house fetches $2m-plus<\/a><\/p>\nWhile adding an expensive oven to the chattels list might be allowable as it is an intrinsic part of a property transaction, \u201cadding a boat or an expensive car would likely be artificial\u201d and likely fall foul of the Overseas Investment Act 2005.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe land would need to be genuinely worth $5 million, not with unrelated extras added to get it over the value threshold,\u201d she said. She also warned sellers not to offer finance schemes to \u201ctop up the sale price\u201d or \u201cany other structure designed to get around the legislative parameters\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pidgeon said that land was defined in the Land Transfer Act as estates and interests in land, buildings and other permanent structures on land, land covered with water and plants, trees, and timber on or under land.<\/p>\n
EpsomTax executive director Garreth Collard said it was a \u201cgrey area\u201d and agreed with Pidgeon that there could be legal implications if anyone tried to add an expensive chattel to push their property over the $5m mark.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a client asked us about that, we would recommend they don\u2019t do it because it could be potentially dangerous for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when we would generally say, \u2018Go and talk to your lawyer\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Labour minister Stuart Nash, whose firm Nash Kelly Global helps high net worth foreigners navigate the \u201cgolden visa\u201d rules, also told OneRoof that sellers could find themselves in trouble if they tried to get around the $5m rule in a way that was found to be disingenuous.<\/p>\n
![\"Could](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1166748fc81e36026246695f1d2f05d4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Stuart Nash: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t make any assumptions that leaving a $100,000 Porsche and $1m of art in the house brings it up to $5m.\u201d Photo \/ Warren Buckland<\/p>\n
Nash had been approached by homeowners about whether it would be \u201ckosher\u201d to throw in some expensive chattels so they could tap into the overseas buyer pool, and his personal view was \u201cdon\u2019t do it\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would think if you\u2019ve got a $4m house, but said, \u2018I tell you what, there are a couple of Colin McCahons in there that are worth $1m\u2019, I don\u2019t think the courts would look at that favourably and say, yes, that\u2019s a $5m property.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others had also asked him about selling a house for $5m and then having a $1m rebate. His view of this was the same, and that it would unlikely stand up to scrutiny in court.<\/p>\n
His advice to sellers was to seek advice from the Overseas Investment Office. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t make any assumptions that leaving a $100,000 Porsche and $1m of art in the house brings it up to $5m.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Could](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/d2514c07bdd02d8462af7d5dffb63247.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Queenstown-Lakes is already a property hotspot for foreign buyers. Walker & Co owner Hamish Walker says most of his clients don\u2019t have restrictive budgets. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Ray White agent Ross Hawkins said there would need to besome clear rules around what was and wasn\u2019t allowed when the policy wasreleased.<\/p>\n
In his view the value of a property comprised the house,land and chattels, which sometimes included luxury items such as cars or boats.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless they have something actually written in, thenthere\u2019s no reason why you couldn\u2019t do that. Because people might be leaving thecountry and go, \u2018Right, I\u2019m going to sell my house and leave my car, so I willsell it with a house\u2019,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s actually a carrot to help people purchasethe property, and it makes it easy for them as they\u2019ve got their mode oftransport as part of the deal.\u201d He once marketed a Sealegs amphibious boat with a house because it was listed as part of the chattels.<\/p>\n
Walker & Co director Hamish Walker did not think it would become an issue because buyers often had quite large budgets and were not worried about spending an extra couple of hundred thousand dollars to secure a property.<\/p>\n
Many of the overseas buyers he worked with in Queenstown were looking to spend $8m or more on a property, and he was currently negotiating one deal in excess of $10m.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of the foreign buyers I\u2019m dealing with don\u2019t have budgets when buying property.\u201d<\/p>\n
– Click here to find properties for sale<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"– Homeowners attempting to bypass the foreign buyer ban by adding expensive chattels risk legal trouble. – Joanna…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,1258,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-160056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-latest-news","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Could](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/476fb822e698e29b3fbbf798adbb9a99.jpg\")
<\/p>\n