Can Foreigners Still Buy a Home in 2026? Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and England Compared

A visa, money and willingness to move do not necessarily give you the right to buy the home you want.

In 2026, five major destinations treat foreign residential buyers very differently. Before comparing asking prices, a prospective buyer should first ask whether the property is legally available to them. Foreign-buyer taxes are a separate second calculation.

The quick answer

Destination	Typical 2026 position	Main gate
Australia	Established home generally unavailable to foreign investors	Current residential-land guidance says the general prohibition runs to 30 June 2029, with limited exceptions
Canada	Many covered urban residential purchases unavailable to non-Canadians	Federal prohibition extended to 1 January 2027, subject to statutory and regulatory exceptions
New Zealand	Overseas people usually cannot simply buy a home	Residency/consent rules, with a new NZ$5m+ pathway for qualifying investor-visa holders
Singapore	Condominium units may be bought without Residential Property Act approval	Property type and, for landed residential property, approval
England / Northern Ireland	Purchase generally possible	No broad foreign-buyer ownership ban; non-resident tax treatment is a separate cost question

These are planning-level summaries, not legal conclusions. Citizenship, residency, property type, visa status and exemptions can materially change the answer.

Australia: property type comes before price

Australia’s current foreign-investment residential-land guidance says that from 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2029, foreign investors are generally prohibited from purchasing established dwellings, with limited exceptions.

The same guidance continues to direct foreign investment toward new housing and requires foreign owners to meet registration obligations.

That creates an immediate filter for a mover: an established apartment and a newly built apartment at similar prices are not necessarily two freely interchangeable options.

Eligibility comes before price comparison.

Canada: the federal prohibition still matters through 2026

Canada extended its federal prohibition on the purchase of residential property by non-Canadians to 1 January 2027.

Federal material explains that the law generally covers residential property in census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations and includes buildings with three dwelling units or fewer, as well as parts of buildings such as condominium units. The Act and Regulations contain exceptions.

So “foreigners cannot buy Canadian real estate” is too broad. But “I found a Toronto condo, therefore I can buy it” is also unsafe. The buyer must establish whether the person, location and property fall inside the prohibition or an exception.

New Zealand: restrictive overall, but with a new investor pathway

Land Information New Zealand says overseas people usually cannot buy a house or land in New Zealand.

New Zealand citizens and qualifying ordinarily resident permanent residents can buy without these overseas-investment restrictions. Some residence-class visa holders who are not yet ordinarily resident can obtain consent to buy or build one home to live in.

A notable change took effect on 6 March 2026: qualifying holders of Active Investor Plus, Investor 1 or Investor 2 residence visas can apply to buy or build a residential dwelling worth NZ$5 million or more.

That means New Zealand now gives very different answers depending on whether the prospective buyer is an ordinary overseas purchaser, a residence-class visa holder, or a qualifying investor.

Singapore: property type comes before tax

Singapore shows why “Can I buy?” and “What will it cost?” are separate questions.

Singapore Land Authority states that a foreign person can purchase a condominium unit without approval under the Residential Property Act, while landed residential property generally requires approval.

Once legal access is established, buyer status can make the transaction much more expensive. Rather than repeat the tax calculations here, our Foreign Buyer Tax Shock 2026 works through Singapore’s current ABSD alongside NSW, Toronto and England. Keeping the eligibility test here and the tax calculation there makes the two decisions clearer.

England and Northern Ireland: purchase access is comparatively open

England and Northern Ireland do not use the same type of broad foreign-purchaser prohibition described above. For a typical foreign buyer, the more important second-stage issue is tax treatment rather than a general ownership ban.

Qualifying non-UK-resident residential purchases can face additional SDLT, and refund rules may apply if later residence conditions are met. The current surcharge and worked £500,000 comparison are covered in our Foreign Buyer Tax Shock 2026.

The Better Places Access Gate

Before comparing foreign property prices, run four questions in order:

Can I legally buy this property type?
Do I need residency, a visa, consent or government approval?
What does access cost after I clear the legal gate? Use our foreign-buyer tax comparison to calculate any surcharge or mandatory buyer-status cost.
Only then compare purchase price, mortgage, recurring ownership costs and broader cost of living.

This sequence matters because the right to live in a country and the right to buy residential property are separate legal questions.

Our Spain Non-Lucrative Visa guide covers residence rules from the other direction, while Retire Abroad in 2026 shows why housing, visa and healthcare gates should be checked together.

The Better Places takeaway

A global house-price table that ignores foreign-buyer rules can send a reader toward a property they cannot legally purchase — or one whose tax-adjusted price is radically different from the advertised price.

The useful question is not:

“Where can I find a cheap home overseas?”

It is:

“Where can someone with my citizenship and residency status actually buy the home I want, and what will access cost me?”

Official sources

Photo: Declan Sun / Unsplash. This is a relocation-planning comparison, not legal, tax or property advice. Individual eligibility and exemptions should be confirmed before a transaction.