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://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11562709" rel="nofollow">http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&o...</a>).<p>Of that 33% is the most restrictive single house ("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." according to <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/75219048/Aucklands-controversial-new-residential-zoning-maps-released" rel="nofollow">http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/75219048/Aucklands-controver...</a>).<p>5% is zoned for apartment buildings.<p>Here'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 "controversial" and anti-upzoning arguments are the same you see in SF and everywhere else where that comes up.