Country guide
Buying a home in New Zealand
There is no stamp duty, but an unconditional offer at auction is as final as it gets.
A standard agreement form used nationwide, offers made either conditional or unconditional, and a LIM report from the council that tells you what the seller may not.
Checked August 2026. Thresholds, grants and taxes change with budgets - the sources at the end are the ones to trust over this page.
The essentials
- Deposit
- 20% for owner-occupiers under LVR rules
- Lower is possible within each bank's limited exempt lending, and through First Home Loan
- Paid on going unconditional
- Usually 10% of the price
- Government charge
- No stamp duty
- Bright-line test applies if you sell within the relevant period and it is not your main home
- Who does the legal work
- Lawyer or licensed conveyancer
- Binding at
- Signing, subject to any conditions; immediately at auction
- Settlement
- Commonly four to six weeks
The steps, in order
- 1Get pre-approval and understand the LVR rulesThe Reserve Bank limits how much low-deposit lending banks may do, so a small deposit is not just a matter of paying insurance.
- 2Order a LIM and read the titleThe Land Information Memorandum is the council's record: consents, drainage, hazards, notices. The record of title shows easements, covenants and the ownership type.
- 3Get a builder's reportEspecially for anything built between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, where monolithic cladding and weathertightness failures are common and expensive.
- 4Make the offer conditional, unless it is an auctionStandard conditions cover finance, LIM, builder's report, title and sometimes the sale of your home. Each has a date by which it must be satisfied.
- 5Go unconditionalWhen every condition is met you confirm, pay the deposit, and the sale is locked in.
- 6SettleYour lawyer handles the transfer and the money. Do a pre-settlement inspection first.
Conditional versus unconditional
The standard agreement lets you buy time to check things, but only if the conditions are written in. At auction there are none: the property is sold unconditionally on the fall of the hammer, so every check must be complete and finance arranged beforehand.
Ownership type matters more than it sounds
Freehold is simplest. Cross-lease means you own a share of the land and lease your dwelling - alterations often need the other owners' consent, and a flats plan that no longer matches the buildings is a defect. Unit title means a body corporate, levies and a pre-contract disclosure statement. Leasehold means ground rent reviews that can be brutal.
Weathertightness and earthquakes
Leaky building syndrome affected many homes built with monolithic cladding and untreated timber framing in the 1990s and 2000s, and repairs run into six figures. Separately, some commercial and multi-unit buildings are earthquake-prone and carry a remediation deadline that passes to the owner.
What you owe later
There is no stamp duty, which surprises buyers from Australia and the UK. There is a bright-line test that taxes gains if you sell a property that is not your main home within a set period, and rules for overseas buyers under the Overseas Investment Act.
What to watch for
The things that cost New Zealand buyers money, in the order they tend to be discovered too late.
- Monolithic cladding on a home built between roughly 1994 and 2005
- A cross-lease flats plan that does not match what is actually on the site
- Unconsented work: a deck, a garage conversion, a bathroom without a code compliance certificate
- Body corporate minutes showing a long-term maintenance plan with no money behind it
- Buying at auction before the builder's report is back
Where these figures come from
- settled.govt.nz - buying a home
- Reserve Bank of New Zealand - LVR restrictions
- Kāinga Ora - First Home Loan
Buying somewhere else?
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Information, not legal advice. Rules differ by state, province and territory, and change. Confirm with a qualified professional in New Zealand before acting. TrueBuy’s document review and price estimates currently cover Australian property only.