Is this the solution to Auckland's housing availiblity/affordablity crisis?

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[reality]

....I agree......the warmth is very nice
...silly me... I thought was global warming

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

(pssssssssst.....wanna know how many STUPID/RETARDED people there are in ENZED? Go to the Electoral Commission website and look up the number of people who voted for the Nats in the last general election)

[reality]

Well spotted..I agree...National is the most popular political party in NZ...that's why they got more voted than any other party

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The New Zealand Herald....

‘We've got Chinese buyers’

Aucklanders like to brag that Chinese buyers will
pay more for their property. For the first time
leaked sales figures suggest they may be right.

By ANNE GIBSON | 5:00AM - Saturday, July 11, 2015


The willingness of overseas-based Chinese buyers to pay above the odds has become the stuff
of Auckland legend. — Photo: Doug Sherring.

IT SEEMS everyone in Auckland has a story to tell about Chinese buyers wanting their house.

One elderly Takapuna man was startled to hear a Chinese syndicate was interested in buying his well-established family home.

His place wasn't even on the market when a real estate agent door-knocked the 82-year-old last month, said a relative.

“A Chinese syndicate was wanting to buy a series of sections to build a block of apartments. The hard-sell was on apparently, but thankfully he resisted the temptation.”

A few suburbs away in Birkenhead, another real estate agent cold-called, leaving his card in the front door of a huge, stately white house, also not on the market.

“It was the smiley face (on the card) which made me call him,” confessed the owner, who had just finished extensive renovations on his three-level wooden villa. “He said ‘we've got Chinese buyers’. So we've got a CV of $1.9 million but I asked for $3 million. I haven't heard back.”

Above the odds


Local agents aggressively market Auckland houses throughout Asia. — Photo: Chris Gorman.

It's not surprising the owner deliberately pushed the price up. The willingness of overseas-based Chinese buyers to pay above the odds has become the stuff of Auckland legend — a perception enthusiastically fuelled by many agents.

“Our Chinese buyers helped us [at] Harcourts Flat Bush push the house price even higher in East Auckland yesterday and set a new record high price,” agent Tom Chen wrote to his clients in June about an auction, which he said was “again, dominated by Chinese buyers” with “a much higher budget”.

Chen told the Weekend Herald he meant Chinese people who live here, not foreigners, but the evidence suggests most of the big money is coming from overseas. Local agents aggressively market Auckland houses throughout Asia to Chinese buyers, who can borrow money at much lower interest rates.

In April, an ad on a Singaporean radio station promoted Auckland as “an investor's dream”, with no land tax, stamp duty or capital gains tax. In 2013 a Chinese TV producer offered local sellers commercial spots in Asian markets “to get the attention of the majority of the affluent Chinese community”.

The trend has even alarmed some real estate agents — Barfoot and Thompson's Ian Thornhill raised concerns in 2013 when a Chinese investor with “surplus funds” bought an Epsom house, reportedly for more than $2 million, and then left it empty.

“I don't think it's a good thing at all,” he told the Herald. “Kiwis are getting really upset. They can't compete with Asians who have the money and they pay more… It's as plain as the nose on your face, what's happening in the auction rooms each week.”

Similar stories are being told around the world as wealthy Chinese investors, worried about the dramatic slowdown of their country's economy and real estate market, pour their money into safe havens abroad.

Last month, Chinese buyers were confirmed as by far the biggest foreign buyers of US real estate, spending $28.6 billion in the year to March at an average of US$831,800 per property, compared to the national average of US$255,600.

In Australia, where soaring prices match those in New Zealand, foreign buyers are banned unless they build a new house or settle in Australia.

Open discussion about Chinese property investment here is crucial for the whole country, because Auckland's runaway property prices are keeping interest rates artificially high, which props up the Kiwi dollar and hurts exporters.

But so far, any debate has been hampered by a lack of information about where buyers come from, mainly because New Zealand has refused to follow Australia's example and set up an overseas buyers register.

The Government has made some concessions — foreign buyers will need to have an IRD number and a New Zealand bank account from October — but the information will still not be available to the public.

Meanwhile some real estate leaders and banking commentators have accused the critics of racism and produced alternative figures suggesting there is not much of a problem.

A BNZ-REINZ survey of real estate agents in 2013 estimated the level of foreign buyers in New Zealand was only about 8 percent.

New figures


Phil Twyford obtained details of 3,922 Auckland property sales by one unidentified real estate
company from February to April. — Photo: Chris Loufte .

Today, the Weekend Herald can reveal house sales data which suggests the influence of foreign buyers is much greater than that. As explained in our analysis, the figures do not directly identify overseas-based Chinese house buyers — but they point to a discrepancy between the number of Chinese buyers recorded and the number of Chinese residents in Auckland, which is difficult to explain any other way.

The figures come from Labour's housing spokesman Phil Twyford, who predicted the trend would increase when a “tsunami” of Chinese money flooded in after the relaxation of foreign investment rules in China.

Mr Twyford obtained details of 3,922 Auckland property sales by one unidentified real estate company from February to April. Labour analysed the buyers' surnames using Auckland electoral roll data, which shows how likely each name is to belong a certain ethnic group. For instance, almost 96 percent of Aucklanders called Li are Chinese, compared with 40 percent who have the surname Lee.

Based on Labour's analysis, buyers of Chinese descent accounted for 39.5 percent of sales — more than four times the 9 percent level of ethnic Chinese in Auckland's population who are New Zealand residents or citizens.

In contrast, European Aucklanders comprise 56 percent of the city's population but only 40 per cent of house buyers.

The figures indicate Chinese buyers target more expensive properties, which tend to influence the rest of the market. Chinese buyers made up a relatively low 33.1 percent of the sales between $400,000 and $600,000, but this figure rose to 36.1 percent in the $600,000-$800,000 bracket, 42.9 percent for $800,000-$1 million homes and 50.1 percent of those buying properties sold for more than $1 million — compared to only 36.3 percent for Europeans, the next largest group.

Smith is the most common surname in Auckland but it ranks only 20th with house buyers — Chinese surnames Wang, Zhang, Li and Chen are the top four from the leaked data and they dominate purchases.

A similar unscientific but compelling picture emerges in the details of the sales lists, seen by the Weekend Herald. Chinese names are the most prominent in weekly sales for many suburbs, including all 11 in one week for Albany, 11 out of 14 in Epsom (a popular suburb for Chinese residents) and eight out of 10 in the Massey area.

Chinese sellers (23.1 percent) and Chinese agents (35.7 percent) are also well out of proportion to the resident population.

Housing Minister questions data


The Government's register would give far more accurate information about overseas investment
in Auckland housing, says Nick Smith. — Photo: Mark Mitchell.

Housing minister Nick Smith dismissed the data as unreliable and questioned Labour's surname methodology. He said the Government's register would give far more accurate information about overseas investment in Auckland housing.

But Mr Twyford said the data strongly suggested overseas Chinese buyers were having a major impact on Auckland's overheated property market and proved New Zealand was out of step internationally with Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, all of which had restrictions on foreign buyers.

“Speculators, both foreign and domestic, account for 41 percent of all property sales in Auckland and are undoubtedly driving up house prices beyond the reach of hard-working Kiwi first home buyers.”

He said Labour had considered the possibility that Chinese residents were richer than most Aucklanders and were buying property out of proportion to their numbers but Statistics NZ data suggested the opposite. Only 5 percent of Aucklanders earning more than $50,000 (the top income bracket) were Chinese. That suggested many of the buyers were not New Zealand citizens, but investors based in mainland China.

Last month, real estate listings web site Juwai.com estimated mainland Chinese would pour US$10.9 billion ($16 billion) into New Zealand property when the Chinese Government implemented the second phase of its Qualified Domestic Individual Investor programme, allowing more citizens to buy overseas property.

Simon Henry, Juwai's co-chief executive, questioned Mr Twyford's numbers and source. “Data that comes from a political party has to be taken with a grain of salt, especially if it deals with such a short time period.”

However Ammon Acarapi, an Auckland Property Investors Association board member and SuperCity Mortgages business development manager, said he was startled by the numbers.

“It's far too high. Chinese are inflating the market and it's creating a pressure. If they chose to walk away, the ramifications on homeowners or investors could be quite disastrous.”

Mr Acarapi said he was concerned that overseas buyers were borrowing from China at low interest rates — which have been as low as 3 percent compared to about 6 percent for New Zealanders — then sitting on the property a few months, selling at a profit and not paying any tax.

“My clients are often out-bid by Chinese at auctions. Chinese real estate agents who have been in the industry a short time are are hitting the top of the industry almost overnight.”

“We can make better use of their money by requiring them to building brand new houses and apartments to help to provide more supply.”

• Anne Gibson is the property editor of The New Zealand Herald.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • Why do you spend $100 on beer when you can save it and spend it on your house one day?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11478724


from The New Zealand Herald....

Special investigation: Auckland house prices

Exclusive: Leaked figures support claims that Chinese investors
are a big influence on Auckland’s overheated property market.

By ANNE GIBSON | 5:00AM - Saturday, July 11, 2015




THE first picture has emerged of Chinese buying patterns in Auckland's pressure-cooker housing market — and it suggests a powerful, big-spending influence.

Real-estate figures leaked to the Labour Party, which cover almost 4,000 house sales by one unidentified firm from February to April, indicate that people of Chinese descent accounted for 39.5 percent of the transactions in the city in that period.

Yet Census 2013 data shows ethnic Chinese who are New Zealand residents or citizens account for just 9 percent of Auckland's population.

The percentage of Chinese buyers in the sales figures rises with the price of houses, peaking at just over 50 percent for those that sell for more than $1 million.

A similar trend appears in a frequency comparison of buyers' names — Chinese names make up about eight out of the 20 most common ones among Auckland residents but fill 19 of the top 20 places for house buyers.

It is not known if the Chinese buyers were based here or overseas.

Labour housing spokesman Phil Twyford claimed the data, which represents 45 percent of all Auckland sales over the three months, showed for the first time the scale of an issue that was pricing first-home buyers out of the market.

“It's staggering evidence that strongly suggests there's a significant offshore Chinese presence in the Auckland real estate market. It could not possibly be all Chinese New Zealanders buying; that's implausible.”

Housing Minister Nick Smith attacked Labour's methodology.

“The data is unreliable as it comes from an unidentified source, covers only one of many real estate agencies and the data analysis is based on surnames rather than whether the buyers are residents or citizens.”

“The real estate agency may have a client base which is more Asian-focused than average, and surnames are a poor identifier of nationality, with Auckland's growing diversity.”

Dr Smith said the Government's newly introduced requirement for all buyers to have an IRD number and New Zealand bank account from October would give far more accurate information on the extent of overseas investment in Auckland housing.




Mr Twyford said Labour had worked out the buyers' likely ethnicity by comparing their surnames against electoral roll data, which covers ethnicity and other information for 1.4 million Aucklanders.

The method could not identify any one person as Chinese but was accurate across large groups. For instance, only 40 percent of people called Lee in the city were Chinese, compared to almost 96 percent of people called Li.

The sales data represented 45 percent of all 8,790 property sales in Auckland during that period, according to Real Estate Institute figures.

Mr Twyford said it was unlikely local Chinese — whom he did not wish to criticise — could be responsible for so many purchases, as they made up only 5 percent of top income earners (those on more than $50,000 a year).

The MP predicted a “tsunami” of Chinese money — estimated by Chinese real estate listings website Juwai at $16 billion — would flood into the local property market after the relaxation of foreign investment rules in China.

He said the Government should make the new register of foreign buyers open to public scrutiny and introduce controls on foreign ownership of housing, as Australia had done. Capital gains on investment properties sold within two years are also due to be taxed from October.

Barfoot & Thompson chief Peter Thompson acknowledged that there were many Chinese buyers but disagreed with Labour's analysis.

“We know there's been a large portion of Asians buying property but there's no way to tell if they're one of three categories: NZ born, foreign-born NZ citizens or foreign-born foreign citizens. If you asked me about Asian non-residents, I'd probably say between 5 and 8 percent.”

Arthur Loo, a lawyer and NZ-China Council board member, said: “Obviously, the Chinese have a strong presence in the market, but the great bulk of our clients are onshore and have some connection to NZ — based here or with children living here.”

“You see them in auction rooms and people want to rush to judgment. They see people who look Chinese or Asian and they want to believe they only arrived yesterday. But some of my clients have been here several generations.”

Murray Horton of the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa said the Government needed to follow Australia and impose much tougher conditions on foreign buyers of residential property.

“For example, that they can only build a new house, not buy an existing one, thus adding to the housing stock, and that they can only own a house if they live in it themselves, not rent it out.”

• CLICK HERE to read a Chinese translation of this article.

The leaked data

• Labour received leaked figures covering 3,922 Auckland property sales by one real estate firm from February to April this year. It carried out its own analysis on the figures, using surnames combined with other data.

• Labour used a statistical technique called Bayesian analysis to estimate ethnicity from surnames. This combines a number of data sets, including Census meshblock data and the electoral rolls database, to estimate the probability of whether a name is European, Maori, Chinese, et cetera.

• The analysis cannot prove statistically whether a buyer is a foreigner or local. Labour's view that most buyers must be from overseas is based on the fact that ethnic Chinese make up only nine per cent of the population but 39.5 percent of the house buyers. However the Census figures are from a large base of 1.4 million people, whereas the house buyers data is from less than 4,000 sales.

• The data comes from one agency and does not show sales by other agencies. It does however contain 45 percent of the sales in that period in Auckland.

• The Weekend Herald has seen the leaked sales figures data and reviewed Labour's methodology. The party updated its figures based on our feedback. We were not able to redo the analysis independently, as it relied on data sets such as the electoral rolls database, which is only available to political parties.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11478719


from The New Zealand Herald....

Labour warns against ‘tsunami of Chinese investment’

10:35AM - Saturday, July 11, 2015


Labour claims the data shows for the first time the scale of an issue that is pricing first-home
buyers out of the Auckland market. — Photo: Doug Sherring.

LABOUR's housing spokesman has come out swinging against foreign speculators snapping up Kiwi homes.

Phil Twyford told TV3's The Nation today leaked real estate data indicating people of Chinese descent were buying properties in Auckland at rates far above their proportion of the population was pricing first-time buyers out of the market.

He also warned against a “tsunami of Chinese investment” he said was on the way. Mr Twyford said Labour would ban foreign buyers from purchasing New Zealand homes.

Real-estate figures leaked to the Labour Party and revealed in The New Zealand Herald today, which cover almost 4,000 house sales by one unidentified firm from February to April, indicate people of Chinese descent accounted for 39.5 percent of the transactions in the city in that period.

Yet Census 2013 data shows ethnic Chinese who are New Zealand residents or citizens account for just 9 percent of Auckland's population.

“What it shows, I think, is striking,” Mr Twyford said.

“Nearly 40 percent of the houses sold in that period went to people of Chinese descent.”

The Chinese population in New Zealand, according to the most recent Census data, is about 9 percent. “That's a remarkable discrepancy and in my view it's simply not plausible to suggest, as many have done in the last couple of years, that ethnic Chinese buying houses in New Zealand are all Chinese New Zealanders.”

The figures showed off-shore Chinese investors had a “very significant presence” in New Zealand. “Aucklanders, I think, have known that for years but the government is in denial.”

And more Chinese capital could be on the way should its government loosen spending rules. “There's a tsunami of Chinese investment heading towards international real estate markets, including New Zealand,” Mr Twyford said.

He defended the data's reliability and fended off suggestions Labour was playing the race card, saying it was not plausible to suggest Auckland's Chinese population has gone on a “house-buying bender” early this year.

“I'm standing up for Kiwi first-home buyers who currently are denied the dream of affordable home ownership.” The Nation said the figures showed Auckland suburbs Albany, Epsom and Milford were the post popular locations for buyers of Chinese descent.

ACT's David Seymour, MP for Epsom, told the programme it was “plausible” the data was representative. He'd heard anecdotal evidence of people going to house auctions and finding lots of people appearing to be Chinese there. He dismissed Labour's moves to ban foreign buyers.

“They're kicking the race tyres to get some votes because they can't find then anywhere else.” Mr Seymour said the real issue was a lack of supply of housing and the Auckland Council's “planning ethos” that was against expanding the city.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11479348

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Guardian....

China's rich seek shelter from stock market storm in foreign property

Australia, Britain and Canada brace for surge in interest after signs Chinese buyers
are seeking safe-haven property markets in wake of stock market volatility.

By REUTERS | 5:22AM BST - Sunday, 12 July 2015


A Sydney real estate agent (right) escorts a potential buyer from Shanghai during an inspection of a property for sale in the Sydney
suburb of Vaucluse on 11th July. — Photo: David Gray/Reuters.

REAL ESTATE agents in Australia, Britain and Canada are bracing for a surge of new interest in their already hot property markets, with early signs that wealthy Chinese investors are seeking a safe haven from the turmoil in Shanghai’s stock markets.

Sydney agent Michael Pallier said in the past week alone he has sold two new apartments and shown a A$13.8m (US$10.3m) house in the harbourside city to Chinese buyers looking for an alternative to stocks.

“A lot of high-net-worth individuals had already taken money out of the stock market because it was getting just too hot,” Pallier, the principal of Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty, said. “There’s a huge amount of cash sitting in China and I think you’ll find a lot of that comes to the Australian property market.”

Around 20% has been knocked off the value of Chinese shares since mid-June, although attempts by authorities to stem the bleeding are having some effect.

Many wealthy Chinese investors had already cashed out. Major shareholders sold 360bn yuan (US$58bn) in the first five months of 2015 alone, compared with 190bn yuan in all of 2014 and an average of 100bn yuan in prior years, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

While much of that money may initially be parked in more liquid assets like US Treasury bonds and safe-haven currencies such as the Swiss franc, there is growing evidence that foreign property sales may receive a boost.

“There is anecdotal evidence that Chinese buyers have intensified their interest in safe-haven global property markets, including London, as a result of the recent stock market volatility,” said Tom Bill, head of London residential research at Knight Frank.

Ed Mead, executive director of realtor Douglas & Gordon in London, said his firm had seen two buyers from China looking to buy whole blocks of flats.

“It is unusual to see the Chinese block buying, it implies that this is a capital movement rather than just individuals looking to park money.”

Since 2000, China has had the world’s largest outflow of high-net-worth individuals. Around 91,000 wealthy Chinese sought second citizenship between 2000 and 2014, according to a report by residence investment broker Lion Global, a factor that is fuelling demand to buy foreign property.

Most of these individuals, defined as those with net assets of US$1m or more excluding their primary residences, are moving to the US, Hong Kong, Singapore and Britain.

Brian Ward, president of capital markets and investment services for the Americas at commercial property company Colliers International, said Chinese investors had already sunk around US$5bn into US real estate in the first six months of 2015, more than the US$4bn they invested in the whole of 2014.

In London, Alex Newall, managing director of super prime residential realtor Hanover Private Office estate agents said he had seen an increase in interest from Chinese investors at the top of the market, although no transactions yet.

“They’re wanting to try and park large sums of money — I’m talking from £25m [US$38.5m] to £150m,” Newell said. “They’re looking to park that capital into London homes.”

Australia and Canada are also increasing in popularity, gaining an edge from their weakening currencies.

“Property prices are still cheap in RMB [yuan] terms,” said Timothy Cheung, a principal of Morphic Asset Management in Sydney.

The rush by Chinese investors into foreign property has not been without criticism, with some in London, Sydney and Vancouver blaming them for pushing up already spiralling prices.

The Australian government has moved to look tough on the issue, introducing new fees and jail terms for those found flouting foreign investment rules. The Chinese owner of a A$39m Sydney mansion was forced to sell up earlier this year after it was revealed the property had been bought illegally through a string of shell companies.

Others are concerned that Chinese investors who didn’t bail out of stocks quickly enough will be a drag on international property markets, particularly after Beijing on Thursday banned shareholders with large stakes in listed firms from selling for six months.

In London, Naomi Heaton, the chief executive of London Central Portfolio, said she had heard of investors pulling out of new-build purchases because they no longer had the capital.

It was a similar story for Vancouver real estate agent Andrew Hasman, who focuses on the city’s affluent westside area.

“I had a call last week from another agent wanting to know if a seller of a transaction we just did would allow the buyer to back out, because they had just recently lost a huge amount of money in the Chinese stock market correction,” Hasman said.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/12/chinas-rich-seek-shelter-from-stock-market-storm-in-foreign-property

[reality]

...well done Auckland...top performer again


Auckland house prices up 26% in June year, buyers looking further afield: REINZ

11:50 AM Monday Jul 13, 2015

Business Markets Transport
Auckland's median price surged 26 percent to a record $755,000, while outside of Auckland the median price was steady at $340,000.

New Zealand house sales and median prices rose in June, with Auckland's median house price rising a record 26 per cent to $755,000 over the past year, amid signs that supply shortages and surging prices in the country's largest city may be prompting buyers to look elsewhere.

The number of houses sold nationwide increased 29 per cent to 7,426 in June compared with the same month a year earlier, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

Excluding Auckland, sales jumped 35 per cent.

Read more:
• Auckland's property crisis: Foreigners should build, not buy - economist
• Editorial: Chinese role in house boom needs checking• Phil Twyford: Forget racism - we need informed debateThe national median price increased 5.4 per cent to $450,000 in June compared with the same month a year earlier.


Auckland's median price surged 26 percent to a record $755,000, while outside of Auckland the median price was steady at $340,000.

The Auckland property market has been a concern for policymakers due to its supply imbalance, and the Reserve Bank plans to impose lending restrictions on property investors from October, while the government has tasked its tax collection agency to police capital gains more forcefully.

New requirements that all second home buyers must supply a local bank account and New Zealand taxpayer number "may be having some impact at the top end of the market, but for the bulk of the market the trends evident over the past 12 months show no signs of abating," said REINZ chief executive Colleen Milne.

Legislation requiring that change has yet to be passed and will only apply from October 1.

Labour Party analysis of leaked sales data, said to be from a large Auckland real estate firm, caused controversy over the weekend by claiming close to 40 per cent of the sales appeared to be to buyers with what appeared to be Chinese surnames, prompting accusations of political point-scoring based on crude racial profiling.

Figures released by Quotable Value earlier this month showed house values in Auckland city jumped at their fastest pace in more than a decade in the year through June, prompting house hunters to spread their net wider, pushing up values in surrounding areas.

"There is increasing evidence that Aucklanders are looking out of the region for properties, both as owner-occupiers and for investment properties," said Milne.

"Regions such as Northland and Waikato/Bay of Plenty have recorded significant drops in the volume of properties for sale over the past six months, with Aucklanders increasingly being identified as a significant buying group in these regions.

Further afield, there is increasing evidence that Aucklanders are making up a larger portion of total buyers."

Milne said prices were continuing to rise in Auckland, where inventory was tight, with less than 10 weeks of stock available.

"The Auckland region continues to experience low listing numbers and strong demand across the spectrum," Milne said.

"Although some vendors are leaving Auckland, there are as many new buyers emerging, leaving the overall supply/demand situation more or less static."

In Northland, sales volumes rose 61 per cent in June from the year earlier month, while the median price increased 6.8 per cent to $315,000 with increased interest from Auckland buyers.

In Waikato/Bay of Plenty, sales volumes jumped 74 per cent from the year earlier month, while the median price increased 3.2 per cent to $346,750, with increased buyers from Auckland.

In Hawkes Bay, sales volume rose 43 per cent while the median price advanced 3.1 per cent to $280,000 as the number of first-home buyers increased while investors remained on the sidelines.

In Manawatu/Wanganui, sales volumes increased 52 per cent while the median price edged up 0.1 per cent to $231,250.

Taranaki volumes jumped 14 per cent while the median price slipped 1 per cent to $303,250. In Wellington, volumes rose 24 per cent while the median price edged up 1.3 per cent to $390,000.

In Nelson/Marlborough, volumes rose 15 per cent while the median price slipped 3.6 per cent to $348,900.

In Canterbury/Westland, sales volumes gained 7.4 per cent while the median price edged up 2 per cent to $418,000.

In the Central Otago Lakes region, volumes rose 24 per cent while the median price advanced 11 per cent to $512,500.

In the Otago region, volumes jumped 29 per cent while the median price rose 6 per cent to $249,000, and in Southland volumes edged up 4.5 per cent while the median price gained 24 per cent to $205,000.
herald

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

from The New Zealand Herald....

Editorial: Chinese role in house boom needs checking

5:00AM - Monday, July 13, 2015

FOR many people, the leaked property sale figures reported in the Weekend Herald will have contained just one element of surprise. They concluded some time ago that overseas Chinese buyers were behind the boom in the Auckland property market. Anecdotal accounts from auctions had led them to discount a survey of real estate agents in 2013 that attributed only 8 percent of purchases to this group. Even so, many will have been astonished to learn that as many as 39.5 percent of sales may be to buyers of Chinese descent. That figure, whatever the question-marks surrounding it, raises issues that need to be addressed.

Deriding the finding as politically motivated and statistically unsound is easy, but essentially a red herring. Compiling an estimate of the ethnicity of purchasers from their surnames, as Labour's housing spokesman, Phil Twyford, has done, is not ideal. But the basis, figures covering 3,922 Auckland sales from one real estate firm from February to April this year, is reasonably comprehensive. And it is better than anything else available.

Regrettably, there is an information vacuum because this country has no register of foreign buyers.

But perhaps we should not be totally surprised if Chinese buyers are, indeed, having a big influence. The Beijing Government is allowing more of its citizens to buy overseas property, and interest rates in China are much lower than here. This has led to Auckland housing being marketed aggressively to Chinese investors. They have been alerted especially that this country has no land tax, stamp duty or other of the restrictions of the likes of Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

So far, the Key Government has acted directly only to the extent of requiring overseas buyers to have an Inland Revenue number and a New Zealand bank account from October. Mr Twyford's finding will ramp up the pressure to do more. To some, it will represent evidence that the extent of Chinese investment, and a readiness to pay over the odds, is, beside its ramifications for the economy, creating an untenable situation for local buyers, especially those seeking their first homes.

There needs to be a high degree of caution, however. First, Mr Twyford's finding has to be substantiated by statistics whose accuracy cannot be challenged. In that context, figures made available by the new government requirements for overseas buyers need to be made available to the public. Secondly, if these figures underline Mr Twyford's conclusion, the response must be carefully calibrated. It would be easy to follow Australia's lead and require overseas investors to build new houses. This makes some sense in increasing supply rather than adding to demand.

It is a stern step, however. New Zealanders certainly take a dim view when they are denied the right to buy a house in an overseas country. Equally, some of the purchases by overseas Chinese buyers are for family members, perhaps students, living in this country for at least some of the time. Even when reliable data is available, therefore, a knee-jerk response must be out of the question.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11479754


from The New Zealand Herald....

Little backs home-buyer stats

Labour leader stands by decision to reveal many
people with Chinese names buying houses.

By CLAIRE TREVETT | 5:00AM - Monday, July 13, 2015


Labour leader Andrew Little stands by the decision to release the figures. — Photo: NZME.

LABOUR leader Andrew Little has stood by the decision to release figures showing a high proportion of Auckland house sales to people with Chinese names, saying it is time to blow the whistle on what is happening in the city.

The use of the data has been criticised by many as racist and “shonky” and Mr Little admitted there had been some backlash.

Labour obtained the leaked data of house sales by one real estate firm from February to April this year — about 45 percent of all sales in Auckland over that period.

The party estimated about 40 percent of the properties were bought by Chinese people, based on their surnames.

Mr Little said while some people had claimed it was racist, several Aucklanders had applauded it.

“If the feedback out of Auckland is anything to go by, I expect we'll have a lot of support in the policy we've put up.”

“We understood the risks but we thought that having got information that clearly highlights an issue that is consistent with what we've been saying, we made the judgment it should be disclosed. I think people need to know.”

He said Labour's critics should be concerned about first-home buyers being squeezed out of the market.

“Our first moral duty is to those who live here, and that includes those of Chinese ethnicity who have chosen to live here, or whose parents or grandparents chose to live here. They are the people we care about.”

Housing Minister Nick Smith said he did not give the data any credence and it was “dumb politics” by Labour.

“The National Government in the 1980s made not dissimilar comments about the Pacific Island community. And it took us 20 years to rebuild trust with Pacific Islanders.”

He said new rules requiring overseas buyers to have a New Zealand bank account and tax number or to provide an overseas tax number would allow data to be collected on sales. Information likely to be released would include the proportion of sales to foreigners by region, value and type.

He said any form of register or data was imperfect because people often bought property from overseas and moved to live in it later, including returning expats and migrants.

Critics included Chinese Association president Meng Foon, who told Radio NZ it was misleading and fed the “general phobia” about Asian property buyers.

Blogger and data journalist Keith Ng also took exception to the use of surnames to judge the buyers, writing on the Public Address blog site there was no way of telling those from overseas from those people whose families had been here since the gold rush.

“You are encouraging people to question whether ethnically Chinese people ought to be able to buy houses. You are saying people with ‘Chinese-sounding names’ are dangerous foreigners who will destroy the Kiwi way of life with real estate purchases.”

Ashley Church, chief executive of the Property Institute, said Labour housing spokesman Phil Twyford's analysis was a “racist sideshow” and shonky. “On that basis Mr Twyford should be blowing the whistle on Scottish foreign investment in this country — because a large number of Kiwi homes are owned by people who have names starting with ‘Mc’ or ‘Mac’.”

Mr Church said an Overseas Investment Office study some years back had shown Chinese well down the list.

• Claire Trevett is The New Zealand Herald’s deputy political editor.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11479813


from The New Zealand Herald....

Phil Twyford: Forget racism — we need informed debate

By PHIL TWYFORD | 9:41AM - Monday, July 13, 2015


The sales data reinforces what so many Aucklanders have thought is going on says Twyford.
 — Photo: NZME.

THE Weekend Herald's report ‘We've got Chinese buyers’ certainly sparked debate.

As Labour's housing spokesperson I've had a swag of messages in response to my comments that the leaked real estate sales data showing buyers of Chinese descent purchased almost 40 percent of houses in a three-month period strongly suggests offshore Chinese investors have a big presence, given the local Chinese community is only 9 percent of Auckland's population.

Aucklanders from all walks of life have offered their views. Many have welcomed what they see as a long overdue debate. Others, notably in the Twittersphere, have been quick to accuse me of racism because I have talked about a particular ethnic group.

But here's the thing. We do need to have a mature public debate about Chinese foreign investment in New Zealand real estate. Especially when the Government has refused to set up a register of foreign ownership and make it public.

Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and other nations have enacted restrictions on foreign buyers in recent years.

When the sales data also pointed to a big presence of offshore Chinese investors, Labour decided it was time to talk about this. However uncomfortable it may be, the sales data reinforces what so many Aucklanders have thought is going on.

It is simply not good enough to try to shut down an important public debate with allegations of racism.

The other criticism we've copped is that analysing the surnames of house purchasers doesn't tell us whether they are local or foreign, and that you cannot logically infer from the numbers anything about the presence of offshore speculators.

We stand by the surname analysis. It draws on data from the Census and the electoral roll and predicts with about 95 percent accuracy ethnic origin based on surname.

Surnames of course don't tell us anything about citizenship or residency. But no one has yet suggested a plausible alternative to how come the 9 percent of the population who are Chinese New Zealanders could be responsible for 40 percent of the house purchases. Did the other 91 percent of the population stay out of the market? Given all the other information at hand, we continue to think it strongly suggests overseas speculators are a big presence.

Labour's policy is to ban all foreign buyers. We don't see any benefit to Kiwis of allowing speculators on the other side of the world to trade our houses for capital gain.

We would not be arguing over the leaked real estate sales data if the Government had agreed to set up a register of foreign ownership and make it public.

The recent announcement that foreign buyers will have to register with IRD will generate the information but the Government still won't agree to a register open to public scrutiny.

The Government doesn't believe the sales data. I say it is time to put up or shut up.

• Phil Twyford is Labour's housing spokesperson and the MP for Te Atatu.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11479817


from The New Zealand Herald....

Property insider: It's bigger than you think

By ANNE GIBSON | 1:29PM - Monday, July 13, 2015


The whistleblower said “people living in China buy the places Kiwis are trying to get”.

MAINLAND Chinese money snapped up at least 80 percent of residential sales in parts of Auckland in March but were nearer 90 percent in May, a whistle blower from the industry says.

The New Zealand Herald reported at the weekend Labour data that showed people of Chinese descent accounted for 39.5 percent of the almost 4,000 Auckland transactions between February and April.

Yet Census 2013 data showed ethnic Chinese who are New Zealand residents or citizens account for only 9 percent of Auckland's population.

The property insider — who wanted to protect their identity because they feared for their job — said the situation was much more serious than the Labour data suggested.

The numbers should be more than doubled due to the weight of capital coming out of Mainland China, the whistle blower said.

One big Auckland real estate agency, where many salespeople are of Chinese ethnicity, was selling almost every single property throughout many suburban areas to people living in China, the insider said.

In some cases, those buyers had a New Zealand connection “but it's one group disenfranchising the other. It's really taken off in the last 18 months. I've been studying the figures since October.”

“The Kiwis, South Africans and British have dropped out of the market because they just can't compete with the Chinese. The people living in China buy the places the Kiwis are trying to get, then those places are rented out the next day,” the insider said.

That showed the person is in an important position in the property sector with extensive access to information unavailable to the public revealing who the buyers really are.

“We're becoming tenants in our own country. It's utterly outrageous. The Chinese are interested in Panmure, Ellerslie, Greenlane, Epsom, Remuera, the North Shore — not so much the west.”

In some cases, a single Chinese resident was spending up to $15 million on Auckland properties and the higher the bidding at auctions went, the happier they were.

“They simply don't care how much they pay. It's not related to the CV. If they pay another $400,000 more, that's $400,000 they're better off as it's $400,000 they have shifted out of Mainland China. If they continue vacuuming up all the existing properties at the current rate of consumption, what will that do? The Chinese will outbid everyone at the auction. I'm sick of the phone bidder from Guangzhou. I'm relieved that someone at last is talking about this,” the insider said of Twyford's data.

Peter Thompson, Barfoot & Thompson chief, acknowledged there were many Chinese buyers in Auckland but has disagreed with Labour's analysis.

“We know there's been a large portion of Asians buying property but there's no way to tell if they're one of three categories: NZ born, foreign-born NZ citizens or foreign-born foreign citizens. If you asked me about Asian non-residents, I'd probably say between 5 and 8 percent,” Thompson said.

It comes amid warnings that rich Chinese investors will be looking to take their money out of China's turbulent stock market and invest it in property overseas.

The Guardian reported that estate agents in Australia, Britain and Canada are expecting a surge of interest from Chinese buyers.

Read more on this topic:

 • Christopher Niesche: Property sector at risk from China fallout

 • Auckland's property crisis: Foreigners should build, not buy — economist

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11480138


from The New Zealand Herald....

Chinese buyers deserve better than being blamed
for Auckland's high house prices: Susan Devoy

By ISSAC DAVISON | 2:07PM - Monday, July 13, 2015


The Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy accuses the Labour Party of dumbing down
complex economic problems. — Photo: Mark Mitchell.

RACE RELATIONS Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy says Chinese New Zealanders deserve better than being blamed for Auckland's high house prices.

Ms Devoy accused the Labour Party of dumbing down complex economic problems by singling out Chinese buyers as a major cause of the overheated housing market.

“Dumbing down complex economic woes and blaming them on an ethnic community whose members are already feeling under pressure is neither new nor unique but it's always disappointing,” Dame Susan said.

Her comments came after Labour's housing spokesman Phil Twyford released leaked real estate data to the Weekend Herald which showed people of Chinese descent accounted for 39.5 percent of the almost 4,000 Auckland transactions between February and April.

Census data showed ethnic Chinese who are New Zealand residents or citizens accounted for 9 percent of Auckland's population.

In a statement, Dame Susan said economists had expressed concerns about the “half-baked” data, and if Auckland's inflationary market was going to be addressed then expert analysis and evidence was needed.

“Chinese New Zealanders deserve better than this and so does anyone keen on actually solving this issue,” she said.

“When the global oil crisis hit New Zealand in the seventies, Pacific people — whether they were citizens or not — were wrongly blamed by many for the economic woes we faced.”

Dame Susan pointed to Chinese migrants' deep roots in this country, saying she recently travelled with a group of Chinese New Zealanders to the Far North to mark the death of 499 miners whose ship sunk more than a century ago, and were buried at Matihetihe Marae.

“Like myself, Phil Twyford is the child of migrants. His family arrived in the sixties, my father celebrated his first birthday on board a ship en route from Ireland. We are both New Zealanders. On that bus trip to Hokianga with me were Chinese Kiwis whose families arrived in the 1800s, they represent generations of Kiwis who have helped build our economy and country.”

“These New Zealanders and their families deserve better than to be singled out because they have a Chinese sounding surname.”

“New Zealand is fast becoming one of the most ethnically diverse nations on earth. We are also one of the most peaceful. This is a legacy we are all responsible for if we are to leave it behind us for future generations.”

Meanwhile, the Green Party distanced itself from Labour's comments by saying that rampant property investment, not ethnicity, was driving demand for Auckland houses.

Co-leader Metiria Turei agreed with Labour's policy that non-resident foreign buyers should be blocked from the New Zealand housing market.

“But if parties are serious about dampening the demand for Auckland property, they need to deal to tax incentives that are encouraging locals to invest in property too,” she said.

• Isaac Davison is a New Zealand Herald political reporter.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11480147

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[reality]

looks like Susan Devoy is alot smarter than Tremain

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[reality]

Yes , I agree..poor old Tom is getting a bit doddery..perhaps time to move home to England

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Hahaha.....I see Paula Bennett's SPIN DOCTOR got sick of telling 100% PURE bullshit on her behalf day after day after day and told her where to stick her “bullshitting” SPIN DOCTOR job and buggered off back to Napier.

Mind you, it must be hard having to work with such a stupid Nats bitch every day.

It would be enough to drive anybody to drink!

[reality]

....2 birds..one stone...could be a good i :Pdea

'$3000' to leave Auckland

5:00 AM Thursday Jan 21, 2016

Aucklanders languishing on the state house waiting list are likely to be offered financial incentives to move to regions that have a surplus of homes, the Herald can reveal.

Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett confirmed last night that the Government wants prospective tenants to consider moving to regions where dozens of state houses are vacant - and in some cases could be offered thousands of dollars in taxpayer sweeteners.

Pacific Island tenants could be prime candidates for such a move, she thought.


"We've really got to shift some of the thinking with those that are eligible for state assistance for housing," Ms Bennett told the Herald.


"And that means thinking more flexibly and looking at other areas of New Zealand that have got great employment opportunities and secure housing."

About 2300 people in Auckland are rated as being in urgent or serious need of social housing, but the city's overheated residential property market is making it difficult to find places for them to live.

Prospective tenants in Auckland can specify two or three suburbs where they want to be resettled, but they are not given the option of moving out of the city.

Under the proposed policy, applicants will be told of vacancies in the provinces. They will be asked whether they have family in other regions and whether they will consider joining them.

"For example, there is such a strong Pacific Island community in South Auckland," Ms Bennett said.

"However, there is a strong Samoan community in Ashburton. There is a huge Tongan community in Oamaru, and I don't think we emphasise that enough and let people know that Auckland is not the only place that they can reside."

Housing New Zealand records show there are more than 100 vacant state houses in Lower Hutt, and a waiting list of 84 people.

In other regions, there are 30 or 40 vacant houses, though some of these are awaiting sale, renovation or earthquake strengthening.

To encourage people to shift to the regions, tenants' moving costs could be covered by the Government. In some cases, they could also get one-off cash payments.

"That's certainly one of the options that we will be looking at, and just how much that would be," Ms Bennett said.

Payments could be at a similar level to the $3000 offered to people after the earthquakes to relocate to Christchurch and take up full-time work, she said.

The policy would be voluntary and would not affect people whose children were settled into schools. But those who chose to stay on the Auckland waiting list were likely to face a longer wait for a home.

Mrs Bennett said she would take the proposals to the Cabinet in the next few months.

The proposed initiative would apply only to Auckland, but could be extended to other cities in future.

It is part of a package that will also temporarily remove people from the waiting list if they turn down state houses without good reason.

More than 400 people fell into this category in the past year.

As Social Housing Minister, Ms Bennett is overseeing major reform of the sector, including the sale of thousands of state houses to community organisations and iwi.

- NZ Herald

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

I see Auckland has become the fifth-most expensive city in the world with regards to the cost of housing versus wage levels.

As the stupid, incompetent Nats government is too busy looking after their rich-prick mates to do anything about the huge blowout in Auckland house prices, the workers of Auckland need to get militant with their employers and demand considerably higher wages to bring Auckland down from the fifth-most expensive city in the world as far as house-prices versus wages to a much lower more affordable place in the rankings.

Forming trade unions and being militant with their employers should do the trick....make those rich-prick Auckland employers pay decent wages, or shut them down if they wish to be arseholes about it. Using a few bully-boy tactics against employers and their families should also help to make Auckland more affordable to live.
 

[reality]

They and their $3000 would be most welcome in Northland...thankyou Paula

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Auckland realities after years of Nats neglect & incompetency....