That is a bloody fantastic letter . I see echoes of the US in Auckland right now . I ' m an immigrant to NZ from the states and during the 2008 crash we basically saw what will happen to Auckland . People will be trapped underwater in mortgages they can ' t pay . One of my friends was $ 50 k under on his loan and couldn ' t sell his house . In NZ it ' s even more insane because 13 rd of the entire population of this country lives in the Auckland area . You can ' t lock out that many of your own citizens from owning a home simply because you want to appease foreign investors with cash . And you ' re also right , there ' s simply no way the average kiwi can pay for a $ 1 , 000 , 000 home . The average wage even in a collegeeducated 2 income house doesn ' t support it .