New Zealand Property Investors Federation advocacy manager Matt Ball says the group is fighting a narrative that property investment is "useless, unproductive and speculative activity". Federation advocacy manager Matt Ball told Herald NOW’s Business with Garth Bray they wanted to counter the narrative all property investors did was “buy and sell houses like [a game of] Monopoly, and then sit on a pile of cash”. They’d have contributed almost identically the same GDP.”Council of Trade Unions economist Craig Renney questioned the report on property investors impact on New Zealand's GDP. No one was saying property investment was wrong, but the country was grappling with how much money should be going into property investment at the expense of other investment, Eaqub said. Property investors spent $4.1 billion on maintenance and improvements alone in the year covered by the report.

Source: New Zealand Herald March 19, 2026 10:07 UTC