[ubernostrum]

Much like the US, complaints about immigrants who "refuse to integrate" into the pre-existing society, don't learn the language, are less welcome to people already there...

...ring very, very, very hollow given the history of how English-speaking peoples arrived in and gained control of the territory. If it was right for those English-speaking settlers to move in as they did, I don't see any grounds for you to condemn Chinese-speaking settlers, or settlers who speak any other language in preference to English.

[throwaway009009]

Perhaps those complaints are made because the current locals do not want to end up like the Native Americans or the Moriori.

[noway421]

Not to diminish you point, but more to express the pain: driving the housing prices is still very mean of them though.

[averagewall]

I never understood how this argument isn't pure xenophobia. House prices are set by both the buyers and the sellers. foreign buyers try to push them _down_, not up. It's the sellers (typically locals) who try to get higher prices. If you had to blame anyone, blame the granny who sells her house to move into a fancy rest home. But really, if you can't afford to live in Auckland, then you're not contributing enough to the economy to deserve it. Go move to a smaller town where your contributions match the cost of supporting your life.

Houses across the country are expensive, even in little nowhere towns. Land is sometimes cheap but houses aren't. That's not immigrants doing it, it's the builders and their high wages.

Outside of Auckland, I'd say the problem is more to do with a generation of arrogant local kids growing up thinking they're better than a tradesman and they should get a BA in sociology instead.

[hafriedlander]

They aren't making any more land. New Zealand has very lax laws regarding property ownership compared to many countries. No capital gains tax. Very limited ownership restrictions.

To pick on a common scapegoat, Chinese citizens can buy a house in New Zealand, so as their economy improves it drives our housing prices up (same level of supply, greater demand), but I can not buy in theirs.

I think it probably only has a small impact on housing prices (a much bigger problem is the political impossibility of any measure that drops housing prices) but I don't think you can say it has none.

I would personally be in favour of introducing a capital gains tax (but, as a renter, I would say that).

[philliphaydon]

Other than America, I'm unaware of any country who invades other countries to take over.

[fulafel]

Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_occupations#C...