Cadillac If it ' s raining outside , sit in your car wasting gas because you suck at driving . <| sep |> User fees . Make transit selfsustaining . <| sep |> I love me a Glaswegian accent or one from Edinburgh whatever the cuck that ' s called and I like to think I ' m fairly good at deciphering accents but that , that was just random sounds in between the occasional real word . Also any time I hear a Scottish person say wee bit I get a little happier . It just sounds so lovely and adorable . <| sep |> Good article that makes the point and from your link in the NZ Herald . The research paper , commissioned by the Government , appears to contradict recent claims by Opposition parties and others that immigration is to blame for house price inflation . The study instead concludes that the main drivers of rising prices in the city are low interest rates , investor demand , capital gains expectations and New Zealanders returning from overseas . Any changes to immigration policy by the Government were therefore unlikely to have much impact on the housing market , the authors of the Waikato University paper concluded . I find the claim that immigration is noninflationary to be extraordinary . I just don ' t get that . Even the department of statistics own publication shows that New Zealander net migration is still negative so how can they claim its positive . ~ m e d i a S t a t i s t i c s b r o w s e c a t e g o r i e s p o p u l a t i o n m i g r a t i o n i n t e r n a t i o n a l t r a v e landmigrationarticlesKiwi % 20 factor % 20 migrationannnetpmt 8616 . gifAlso the study undertaken by the University of Waikato and the report written by them states Of course , correlation is not the same as causation . Nonetheless , a simple model of housingdemand and supply would suggest that a sudden , and unexpected , increase in population in aparticular region would push up the cost of housing at least in the short run while the supplyof housing is rather fixed . Hence theory points to a direct causal effect of additional netinternational migration leading to higher house prices and higher rents . This is not disputed inthe literature . The key questions that the literature seeks to address are instead firstly , theextent to which this effect can be separated from all other current influences on the housingmarket secondly , the magnitude of this effect relative to the impact of other influencesthirdly , the impact of housing marketrelevant characteristics of migrants visvis those ofresidents fourthly , the extent of outward migration from the region that is triggered by themigrant influx and , fifthly , the time horizon over which the impact is assessed . Yet , the NZ Herald seems to say exactly that and leads us to believe that the link to immigration is disputed in the thesis . The rest of it seems to draw a link between a rate of exodus of kiwis and rising house prices which is something I don ' t get . I would really love someone for someone to explain to me how a negative kiwi migration can have a positive inflationary effect ! ! The same thesis states The precise factors that underpin the supply and demand for housing , and hence the price ofhousing , either owning or renting , are many and varied . Migration , be it domestic i . e . internal or international i . e . external , is just one potential causal factor in a complex web ofinterrelationships in the housing market . This makes it very difficult to ascertain what thedominant factors are in house price changes at any point in time and what the contribution ofnet migration has been to the overall change in prices . Figure 6 provides a representation ofthe many factors potentially involved . When you actually look at figure 6 it simply lists soft items like supply and demand , homelessness , crowding , inflation , finance , etc . If this is not a massive exercise in missing the point I don ' t know what is . Do the NZ Herald journalists actually read more than the first page of these reports ? It all seems a bit disingenuous . A far simpler paraphrase might just be We don ' t know !