New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses
Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand.<p>75% of Auckland is zoned for 1 or 2 story buildings (according to <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nzherald.co.nz&#x2F;business&#x2F;news&#x2F;article.cfm?c_id=3&amp;objectid=11562709" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nzherald.co.nz&#x2F;business&#x2F;news&#x2F;article.cfm?c_id=3&amp;o...</a>).<p>Of that 33% is the most restrictive single house (&quot;The Single House zone currently covers around a third of residential Auckland and is very restrictive, allowing for only one dwelling on sections smaller than 600 square metres.&quot; according to <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.stuff.co.nz&#x2F;auckland&#x2F;75219048&#x2F;Aucklands-controversial-new-residential-zoning-maps-released" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.stuff.co.nz&#x2F;auckland&#x2F;75219048&#x2F;Aucklands-controver...</a>).<p>5% is zoned for apartment buildings.<p>Here&#x27;s 97% of your house pricing problem. Not foreigners, not low interest rates, not land taxing policies.<p>New Zealand has total population of ~2x Paris and land 1000x of Paris.<p>This is Venezuela style of fixing problems: instead of addressing underlying economics (limited supply meeting increasing demand causing raising prices) by increasing supply, find a political scapegoat (all nations are xenophobic so outsiders are always a good target) to get people to vote for you and create ineffective rules.<p>The real fix is politically unpopular. Unsurprisingly, Aucklanders are NIMBY with the best of them. The plan to upzone is &quot;controversial&quot; and anti-upzoning arguments are the same you see in SF and everywhere else where that comes up.