Essay ---COMM570

The Role of Immigration in Aucklands Housing Situation

Question: What role does immigration have in Aucklands current housing situation?

Immigration is a trend in contemporary world (wrong, immigration has existed for the

last 5000 years, men started as migrating creatures, it has been a trend for as long).

According to Hochschild and Mollenkopf (2009), millions of individuals have migrated

to a foreign country (So? We already know this, how did the Maori appeared in NZ?

They migrated from Polynesia). Although New Zealand has not experienced such a

significant rate of immigration (since when? Since forever? In the last 10 years? In

the past 2 decades?), its net gain of in immigration has reached a all-time record

high of 68,400 in May 2015 to 2016 (Statistics New Zealand, 2016). A similar

scenario only happened 25 years ago (huh? What is the point of this sentence, what

are you trying to show?). While immigration brings both benefits and costs to the

host country (says who? Dont just stop there, need source), it also appears to play a

role in putting pressure on the supply of housing (putting pressure on housing supply

is a house, it is not a separate thing from costs to the host country. You dont say

there are both benefits and costs to buying a bottle of coke, it also appears the coke

costs $2, logical fallacy). This essay will firstly describe the recent immigration

trend into Auckland. It will then argue (for or against?) or analyse? the major impact

of immigration on the availability and the affordability of housing stock in the

cityAuckland. Finally, it will explore explore the causal connectionthe associations

between housing shortage and affordability.

Auckland is a good place to live, so people from all over the world come (dour

sentence). Replace your first sentence with: Initially designed to be a port city

conveniently located in the Waitemata Harbour, Auckland has inadvertently offered

its residents a uniquely rich lifestyle with its scenery and its bustling commercial

activities. Coupled with a steady urban development plan and some effective

marketing campaigns, Auckland has been an alluring destination for worldwide

immigrants in the last two decades. This has turned Auckland into a large

cosmopolitan city.

The four largest groups sources of recent immigration are from China, India,

Philippine and UKthe United Kingdoms. Almost half of the Chinese and Indian

immigrants are on present on a student visa, while those (how many? Half? Most?

No point saying half in the first part of the sentence if you are not ready to make a

numerical comparison in the latter half of the sentence) from UK are mostly returning

New Zealanders (Kiwis) or with both UK and New Zealand citizenship. Asian

immigrants tend to concentrate in Auckland due to its size, more work opportunities,

diverse ethnic communities (Tan. 2016) and quality tertiary schools. New immigrants

come with different categories of professionals, skilled personnel, investors, family

union and international students. When bringing exotic cultures, immigration also

brings businesses and capitals. Foreign-born immigrants tend to settle in

demographic patterns by either renting or buying a house. (What is the point of this

paragraph? Why does it sound like you just got some data and inserted it here? I

didnt take away much from this. Please state clear your intention)

There is a shortage in Aucklands housing market. People migrate from provinces to

Auckland for reasons of fear of Christchurch earthquake and/ or the rapid growth in
Auckland (only these two? Im not saying that you are wrong, but I am not convinced,

wheres your source? Wheres your reasoning? Without the either, I am not convinced

that XChurch earthquake is the leading reason why people from NZ migrate to

Auckland.). They come to seek a safer place to live; businesses shift here for a

steady environment to grow (Source??!!! Give me some data for comparison. What

do you mean by safe? PHyscially safe? Or job safe? Please clarify. You can write at

least 100 words on domestic migration alone, maybe a new paragraph). Also, low

interest rates and dynamic housing activities appeal investors to come from both

New Zealand and overseas(once again, source? Who says low interest rates is

necessary a good thing? Why would they come to Auckland to buy house anyway?

Even when the interest rate is low, its so damn expensive I can hardly imagine why

people would immigrate from the provinces to Auckland to buy house. I am sure low

interest rate is the same across the entire country. There is some logic fallacies in

there, please reconsider). Another reason for housing shortage might be leaky

houses which leave a vacuum patch in housing market (Housing shortage has

never been mentioned outside of the introduction, considering that it is your central

topic, it is weird that you are only mentioning it near the end of a random paragraph.

Please restructure your essay clearly). (Also it is a very bad reason, leaky house?!!!

What? Whats your source? You need authority to say that kind of stuff?)The large

immigration inflow makes Aucklands houses in a situation of high demand especially

for some crowded areas where a shortage is severer. Newshub (2015) pointed out

there was a 18,000 shortfall of new homes in a time span of the next 3 years (Are we

still talking about the domestic immigration flow? I was under the impression that this

paragraph is talking about the impact of domestic immigration as the starting

sentence made it out to be. I have no idea how I ended up here talking about maybe

international immigration as well?.

More people come to Auckland, house price will increase higher. (No transition at all,

why are we talking about this? I have to stop here, Ive lost all semblance of logical

structure and I cant read on sorry. Please consider applying the suggested changes

and resubmit) Aucklands house median sales price has reached a new record of

842,500 in August, even if there was a sales volume fall of 4% compared to this time

of last year (REINZ, 2016). The parameter of Median Multiple for affordability is 3.0

and under while 5.1 and over as severely unaffordable (Cox. & Pavletich. n.d.).

Aucklands current Median Multiple figure is 9.7 (Radio New Zealand, 2016). The

reasons behind the price soar might be controversial. They can be Capital Tax,

expensive construction cost, high land value and immigration. An empirical evidence

shows one percent increase in population can result in about 5 percent price up on

year after. Statistics New Zealand (2016) latest figure shows Auckland has a 13.9%

increase in comparison with a general 5.8% nation wide. That can be explained that

majority of the new immigrants possibly live in Auckland. The overcrowding is likely

linked to a housing crisis on price and stock.

There is a significant correlation between housing availability and affordability. When

there were a shortage, meanwhile if there were a big immigration inflow, house price

and rent were bound to increase. Availability and affordability must coexist in

harmony. If the balance tilted to a large extent, then one of the consequences could

be leaving thousands of homeless sleeping in the car or in the parks; on the other

hand, bankruptcies. Therefore, it is necessary for the government to monitor housing

situation frequently and reassess policies to make sure everything right. The

proposed unitary plan may ease Aucklands housing shortly.

In conclusion, immigration has effects on Aucklands housing situation, both on

availability and affordability which are correlated. The impact can be positive or

negative.