Earlier quoted context omitted.
Overseas buyers just get permanent residency and citizenship and buy houses. A few years ago you just needed ~$NZ5m invested in the country and you get permanent residency. There is no way the prices are driven by domestic money. My factory supervisor brother has a house in Mangere Bridge, a blue-collar suburb, built for ~$100k 20 years ago is now well over $1m. It is batshit crazy. I hear of eye-watering prices in M…
> A few years ago you just needed ~$NZ5m invested in the country and you get permanent residency. There is no way the prices are driven by domestic money. In 2019-2020 just 38 of this class of visa was approved, which seems to be about the average per year over the last decade. It was just 16 in 2020-2021. I don't think these people are buying decrepit Auckland villas, two bedroom semi-detached or tiny one bedroom ap…
And yes, the prices can be driven up by cheap loans, but from memory they were already rising steadily before the covid stimulus measures.
I am still unconvinced that there exists in NZ a mechanism that can generate so much money and drive up the prices to these levels. Haven't been back for a while but family and friends back there are just as bewildered as I am with these price rises.