It’s not his main point, but Raybon Kan answers the question: Why would you move to New Zealand and buy a house? Simple, it’s “time zones away from industrial smog and religious loonies, yet voluptuous with fresh produce.”
I'm certainly not surprised overseas people want to buy. Ask James Cameron: he thinks New Zealand is paradise, and he invented Pandora.
Look at us: time zones away from industrial smog and religious loonies, yet voluptuous with fresh produce. How safe are we? We literally couldn't be further away from Greece's economy. Only the easy-going pace of our internet prevents every Silicon Valley billionaire from moving here. New Zealand is a lifestyle block. We are that Instagram of Sunday brunch (#nofilter) - but better: with schools.
So try to put a price on that. What's it really worth to live in NZ? What would you pay? Now, ask some of the richest people in the world - people who think the sky on a clear day is dark beige. People who think drinkable water is a miracle. People who look at Auckland traffic and see a babbling river of motoring joy. Remember how, decades ago, New Zealanders didn't value beachside property - and how that's unbelievable now? That's how Auckland, even with deep traffic thrombosis, looks to mainland Chinese.
Easy to take all that for granted when you’re sitting in those hardening arteries.
But, no, that doesn’t mean the gummint should ban NZers selling their houses to foreigners. Or needs to.
NB: Mind you, every day there’s more new statist garbage like this to endure: ‘Password law for Customs "necessary".’
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2 comments:
No-one else seems bothered about home owners being banned from selling to the highest bidder PC. The nationalistic fever gripping the country defies reason. Do New Zealanders really want to make the country poorer? Will 'fortress NZ' really work for us? Yes the Aussies hunker down, as does Singapore, etc, but I'd actually like to catch that bus.
If I had a crystal ball and could see that NZ was predominantly Asian in 2115, would I care? No. I won't be here. My kids won't be. Their kids and grand kids might be, but will have adjusted to (and more importantly benefited from) any Asian influx. My kids (young adults actually) have close friends from Korea and the Phillipines. It is entirely possible that I will have part-Asian grandchildren and so long as the individual partners are good people, not a damn do I give.
The Europeans overwhelmed Maori only 150-200 years ago. Power is always shifting.
Personally, I prefer an onslaught of money to an onslaught of anything else.
The issue not people moving here but offshore investors pumping up a speculative bubble in our housing market. 30,000 empty houses in Auckland because they are being bought, held and flicked off for capital gain & it's not worthwhile renting them in the meantime because rental yields are so low.
The least we can do is get accurate data to make informed policy.
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