New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses
Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand.75% of Auckland is zoned for 1 or 2 story buildings (according to http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&o...).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 http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/75219048/Aucklands-controver...).5% is zoned for apartment buildings.Here's 97% of your house pricing problem. Not foreigners, not low interest rates, not land taxing policies.New Zealand has total population of ~2x Paris and land 1000x of Paris.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.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.