LittleGreyCat

The issue isn't that the immigrants don't have "means". Quite the opposite. The immigrants have enough money to buy a house which denies that house to existing residents and creates scarcity of housing, thus driving up housing prices.

You may have noticed that house prices have been going up, especially around Auckland. This is a sign that there is a lot of money about but not a lot of housing.

mikemike

I can understand that government be it at national or local level do not do enough to release new build land with planning restrictions on costs of homes. Not 100% a social housing problem/solution as that can create ghettos. There may be good reasons why more land is not being made available, then again the reasons could just be a political one

Example is in some countries like Malaysia a foreigner can arrive and stay, the property is to be priced at a higher price(much higher) than the locals will pay so in effect the lower priced properties are ringed fenced for local people. Similar claims were made in London, until the reality was tested and it was clear the majority of purchased property by foreign nationals was at the top end of the market, so not displacing the majority of local home buyers.

For a country the size of New Zealand, with a population of under 5m. I am sure that there is a workable solution. Yet, sadly like a lot of things, it is often the politics that gets in the way of such a solution.

what do you think?

I suspect that the benefits of skilled migrants with 'means' entering NZ is very important in increasing economic activity. Shame that more activity is not focused on house-build and infrastructure to connect such projects.

Charismatic

It's an artificial problem created by regulation.

1. Offer a government co-contribution to local council for new dwellings, perhaps matching local rates for 3 to 5 years. Alternatively cap council tax on dwelling more than 3 to 5 years old. Either way create a financial disparity to encourage rapid development and redevelopment consent by local councils.
2. Mandate zoned consents for type-approved dwellings in addition to the current individual, expensive case by case compliance current required by the RMA. This will open up larger scale developments.
3. Create a legal title framework for apartments that's better and more comprehensive to allow banks to finance apartments.
4. Allow tax breaks on mutual housing development associations that reinvest profits in property.
5. End LVR and affordability restrictions on new builds.
6. Encourage corporate and government dis-aggregation (which will ease demand on infrastructure and move demand for housing) by setting central city industrial rates at a higher level than surrounding suburbs or regional towns.

New Zealand doesn't have a population or migration problem (although we do have a demographic problem!) but it does have a massive issue with scaling the rate of infrastructure development. Basically we have no population growth strategy and have vastly under-invested for more than a decade now. We really need a period of low or no net population growth to get our own house in order in my view.

Also best estimates, as I pointed out earlier, are that an economically optimum net migration rate is less than a third the current level long-term.

Bo-Jangles

I would agree with that, having seen the level of growth in people and new housing developments that have gone up in and around Auckland over the past decade; there has been little to no new infrastructure added to cope with that amount of extra people.

We're adding something like 800 or more extra cars per week and 40,000 + more people each year to already gridlocked roads of Auckland and yet no signs yet of any real infrastructure changes except for the addition of three new shopping malls. The hospitals are at breaking point and full to capacity and traffic is getting more of a bloody nightmare with each passing day.

It certainly feels like the frantic demand and ever increasing house price madness has levelled off in Auckland and no longer such a newsworthy subject in terms of 'bloody foreigners coming over here and taking all our land' situation of the past few years. I drive by houses that have been for sale for months and it doesn't seem that turnover is at anywhere near the pace it was a year or so ago.

BEVS

Same here TBH.

Charismatic

Well let's see what the government announces in the lead up to the budget in two weeks.

About a two months ago they announced an infrastructure package for Auckland including light rail, then about a month back they announced the same package again but to include motorways and last week I heard they announced a nominal $28bn plan (aggregated over 10 years) but it turned out to be the same projects being re-announced a third time.

I can't be certain the government understand how this works, when I put a new battery in Miss Charismatics car to "make it work again" a month ago I got due gratitude. I didn't then need to remind her the next week how I'd also had to test the old one and the week after how I had to put the new one on charge overnight before sticking it in.

Jobs a good'un, move along...

Clappy

Didn't we have a government with a similar approach in the UK about twenty years ago?

bearskin

I agree too. Would this be an Auckland problem though? I'd often thought that much on NZ could still do with some development - places outside of the Auckland-Hamilton-Tauranga well-trod path.

The under-investment in Auckland to cope with the population growth is verging on criminal IMHO.

LittleGreyCat

Grumping from the corner.
We would be quite happy to come over and build a house somewhere "not Auckland".

Must be coming around to the time when they review the Parents immigration queue, soon.

BEVS

You grumps. Tiz fine.

LittleGreyCat

Just looked again at the categories.
Not going to have our EOI looked at for at least the next 2 years.
We need £500,000 + £250,000 + £30,000 a year income to come as an "investor".

Not living in central London in a converted public toilet we don't have that kind of capital.

Ah, well.

Justcol

Option 1) fly to fiji, top up your tan then come in as fruit pickers and never leave
Option 2 ) check out the sex worker thread in the sheep dip. Bit of rouge, some badly applied lippy and laddered stockings
and you might carry it off. I mean, how are they gonna check. . . .

Charismatic

Slight decline in net figure due to more people leaving again rather than any policy change:

BEVS

I'm sorry . Family is important even if some do not realise this.

Charismatic

There is a slight change proposed for student visas, previously if they wanted to stay subsequently they where required to show proof of employment but that requirement may now be dropped (subject to consultation.)

The way I see the issue currently is that the type of students New Zealand really needs are actually postgraduate. People are being exploited because they are competing with locals for jobs and typically losing out, about a third of kiwis already have degrees so the market for that skill level is typically over-saturated. In short if we had a functional visa system we would only be granting work extension to students who had undertaken postgraduate study in New Zealand which would be fairer for all students. Proceeding as proposed would only be treating the symptoms unfortunately.