There ' s a difference between immigration and immigration . Immigration is largely New Zealanders moving back from Australia in record numbers because it turns out the grass is greener back home , so if they already haven ' t got a house waiting for them , they ' ll be looking to buy one . And New Zealanders returning from Australia have been the largest source of migrants over the last 12 months . Immigration is what rnewzealand ' s resident xenophobes use to blame the current housing crisis on , not other factors like rampant property speculation , building costs and local government bureaucracy . According to them , the Chinese , Indians or whatever ethnic boogeymen that they ' ve heard through anecdotes this week are buying up all the houses and are creating this crisis and ruining New Zealand for honest , hard working white Kiwis . Immigration in of itself is not a problem as long as the population growth is evenly spread . The problem is , it isn ' t , which is why Auckland is in a particular spot of bother with high housing prices .