<story><title>New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses</title><url>http://www.independent.co.uk/news/new-zealand-foreigners-buy-property-ban-coalition-talks-prime-minister-jacinda-arden-a8017261.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ACow_Adonis</author><text>Speaking as an Australian, , where we already have nominally similar policies, and keeping in mind the metro house price phenomenon is repeating in several places in the world in a similar fashion, there&amp;#x27;s just one small problem with these policies:&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s limited evidence available that it&amp;#x27;s foreign buyers primarily responsible for our high house prices :&amp;#x2F;&lt;p&gt;The primary cause has always been local steady employment, low interest rates combined with liberal access to debt with households culturally disposed to pumping that into housing.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s very easy to blame this on Chinese money (which I&amp;#x27;m sure is a common story in many parts of the world where house prices are taking off), but the far bigger cause had always been leveraging afforded by local households combined with a low interest rate environment.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ACow_Adonis</author><text>Just replying to myself now to add: the solution to high house prices is, like much transport policy, boring and well known but not implemented for political reasons.  On the housing front: tax capital gains, limit leveraging ability, implement a land based tax and zone&amp;#x2F;invest appropriately to encourage new supply.  This will bring housing far more in line with what people expect.&lt;p&gt;This brings us to the other awkward point though: truthfully, I&amp;#x27;m sure many New Zealanders, just like many Australians, neither want their housing prices&amp;#x2F;investments to drop in relative price or to return to closer relationships with local use.&lt;p&gt;Which leads us to the policy&amp;#x2F;political pantomime game so often involved in these areas where people want to have their cake and eat it too: &amp;quot;I want afforable housing for my children that doesn&amp;#x27;t make my property prices drop!&amp;quot;</text></comment>
<story><title>New Zealand to ban foreigners from buying existing houses</title><url>http://www.independent.co.uk/news/new-zealand-foreigners-buy-property-ban-coalition-talks-prime-minister-jacinda-arden-a8017261.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ACow_Adonis</author><text>Speaking as an Australian, , where we already have nominally similar policies, and keeping in mind the metro house price phenomenon is repeating in several places in the world in a similar fashion, there&amp;#x27;s just one small problem with these policies:&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s limited evidence available that it&amp;#x27;s foreign buyers primarily responsible for our high house prices :&amp;#x2F;&lt;p&gt;The primary cause has always been local steady employment, low interest rates combined with liberal access to debt with households culturally disposed to pumping that into housing.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s very easy to blame this on Chinese money (which I&amp;#x27;m sure is a common story in many parts of the world where house prices are taking off), but the far bigger cause had always been leveraging afforded by local households combined with a low interest rate environment.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Smerity</author><text>As another Australian, our housing prices is broken for multiple reasons but foreign investment is a _major_ contributor.&lt;p&gt;Credit Suisse research indicates that &amp;quot;foreigners are acquiring 25 per cent of newly completed supply in NSW and 16 per cent in Melbourne, or 21 per cent if we combine the two states&amp;quot;. The total value of new houses in both states was $39 billion over the relevant 12 months.&lt;p&gt;After the Chinese government cracked down on monetary restrictions (i.e. Citizens of China can normally only convert US$50,000 a year in foreign currency and have long been barred from buying property overseas), Lend Lease reported 30 to 40% of foreign purchases now being cash settled.&lt;p&gt;Transparency International consider Australia the worst money laundering property market in the world.&lt;p&gt;Foreign investment, especially for countries which avoided the 2007 housing bubble such as Australia, is a major issue.&lt;p&gt;A friend will be posting an article on the multiple bubbles he sees in the Australian economy, and property is potentially the most concerning of all given how exposed our banks are to housing loans.
We may find Australia finally seeing their house bubble pop like the US in 2007.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.smh.com.au&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;property&amp;#x2F;australian-property-cheap-for-chinese-buyers-credit-suisse-20170323-gv5ets.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.smh.com.au&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;property&amp;#x2F;australian-property-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.transparency.org&amp;#x2F;whatwedo&amp;#x2F;publication&amp;#x2F;doors_wide_open_corruption_and_real_estate_in_four_key_markets&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.transparency.org&amp;#x2F;whatwedo&amp;#x2F;publication&amp;#x2F;doors_wide...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Updated to include direct link to Credit Suisse: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;research-doc.credit-suisse.com&amp;#x2F;docView?language=ENG&amp;amp;format=PDF&amp;amp;sourceid=csplusresearchcp&amp;amp;document_id=1072773781&amp;amp;serialid=vGaaRmOdA9BYZyKVi%2BOQvCfX%2BJZ8vpuaqcWf8o4NoF8%3D&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;research-doc.credit-suisse.com&amp;#x2F;docView?language=ENG&amp;amp;...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>