Investor immigration policy changes will boost NZ’s economic growth4 Mar 2025

The Active Investor Plus (AIP) policy is to be significantly revised, and enhanced, with the recent changes announced by the Prime Minister.

In the 12 years to mid-2022 New Zealand’s investor immigration programme proved very successful in attracting over 3,000 families, and some NZ$14 billion of investment. This all changed when the previous Government introduced the current policy in October 2022 and, since this time, only 43 applications, and some NZ$70 million of investment, have been completed. The current policy has proved unduly complex and cumbersome, and imparts far too much investment risk on applicants.

The present Government has recognised that New Zealand is missing out on its share of the 120,000 high-net-worth individuals who are looking for a safe and stable country to invest, and potentially live, in. These individuals have the ability to make a very significant contribution to New Zealand’s economic growth, not only from their investments but also from their business acumen and international connections.

Effective from 1 April 2025 the following changes to the investor policy settings are being made:

  • Replacing the existing investment weighting system with two simplified Growth and Balanced investment categories.
  • The Growth Category will require $5m investment for 3 years, with applicants to spend a total of 3 weeks in New Zealand. Acceptable Growth Category investments will comprise investments made into New Zealand businesses either directly, or through targeted managed funds. NZ Trade & Enterprise (NZTE) will have a key role in ensuring investments align with the Government’s economic growth objectives.
  • The Balanced Category will require $10m investment for 5 years, with applicants to spend a total of 7 weeks in New Zealand. Acceptable Balanced Category investments can comprise a range of bonds, listed equities, certain new property and existing commercial/industrial developments, philanthropy, as well as any Growth Investments.
  • The total investment must be made within 6 months of the initial application approval (with one 6-month extension allowed).
  • There will be no English language requirement.
  • All applicants must continue to meet good health and character requirements, and evidence their investment funds were originally lawfully earned, and that these funds have been transferred through the banking system to New Zealand.

The final policy details are to be published in early March and will take effect from 1 April.

Given there is a relatively short period (6m) for applicants to invest, and that Growth Investments will take time to come to the market, we envisage the main initial interest will be for the Balanced Category. In due course, however, we would expect to see a high number of attractive Growth Investment opportunities, particularly with managed fund investments targeting a wide range of business opportunities that align with the Government’s economic growth plans. This immediate access to significant capital will kick-start a number of projects which have been “waiting in the wings”.

The role of NZTE in how, and how quickly, they assess and approve acceptable Growth Investments, and the ability of Immigration New Zealand to efficiently process AIP applications will be the two main challenges for the new AIP. The next challenge will be accessing the skills and labour required to undertake the projects being invested in.

At least we now have a visa product which is “marketable”, and we are already seeing significant (& understandable) interest from the USA, but also good interest from Asia and Europe. With Australia, and several other countries, not having a current migrant investor programme New Zealand is very well-placed to take full advantage of the opportunity the new AIP affords.

Disclosure: Pathways® Managing Director, Richard Howard, is a member of the Minister of Immigration’s Adviser Reference Group which has advised on the AIP policy changes.

Link: First Published in the Waikato Business News, March 2025 Edition, Page 6