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The Government's tough stance against foreign buyers has been watered down - but only slightly.

A select committee has recommended a number of changes to the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill, to give foreign investors more leeway.

Among those - allowing overseas investors to buy apartments, providing they lease them out.

Many have welcomed the tweaks, saying they will allow more money to flow into desperately-needed developments.

But Christina Lefever - from law firm Duncan Cotterill - says overseas investors will still face significant hurdles.

"Every overseas person who wants to buy residential land in New Zealand, is still going to have to go through the OIA consent process, and that includes those developers."

Christina Lefever says it could take six months for developers to go through the Overseas Investment Office process.

However, Singapore's been put on the same playing field as the Australians when it comes to buying houses here.

They'll also be able to buy commercial land for commercial activity like hotels and supermarkets.

The soft line with Singapore is because of our free trade agreement with them, but Winston Peters says it's negotiable.

The Singaporean's said to us 'When the best of the information is available in your country that's very difficult to establish- we think its something between 20- 30 houses.' But if there was to be a substantial change to that, or any significant change to that, then we would be happy to revisit that with you."