New New Zealanders Make Themselves at Home

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release

From Professionals Real Estate Group – Auckland/Northland Region

Date July 5, 2007

New New Zealanders Make Themselves at Home

A new influx of immigrants are enjoying the joys of open spaces in Auckland and Northland as they buy up houses, apartments, lifestyle blocks or houses near the sea or bush.

It is likely that this is, in part, a result of changes made by the government in late 2004 to the 'skilled migrant' category of its immigration policy. As well, it comes at a time when the market is pondering the impact of the recently-announced Active Investor Migrant policy which targets wealthy overseas business investors.

The United Kingdom is still a large source of immigrants, with significant numbers also coming from traditional sources in Asia, but the face of new New Zealanders is beginning subtly to change, with many more arrivals from countries such as India, Malaysia and the Phillipines.*

Barry Joblin, principal of Northland's Glenbarry Real Estate, a member of the Professionals Group, says newcomers – many from the United Kingdom - are 'quite a major force' in the Northland market.

"British immigrants, for instance, are spending between $500,000 and $700,000 to buy a substantial house and some acreage in coastal places, and are particularly interested in lifestyle blocks within 30 minutes' drive of Whangarei," says Mr Joblin.

"It's the kind of property they would never have been able to afford in England or many other places in the UK. Typically they are skilled people – builders, IT people, teachers, doctors and nurses – aged in their 30s or 40s, not always with children."

Mr Joblin says the trend has strengthened over the past year with 20 per cent of lifestyle sales through his offices in Mangawhai to north of Whangarei being to British immigrants.

"It has had the interesting effect of seeing more farms with rare and exotic breeds of livestock."

Statistics New Zealand reports that there were 22,700 arrivals of permanent and long-term migrants from the United Kingdom in 2006, compared with 18,800 in 2002.

In Howick, which for some years now has been home to a large Asian population, migrants continue to influence the housing market.

However, says Raewyn Wilson, Principal of Professionals Star Real Estate, their profile is changing. Where Chinese Asians once comprised the vast majority of incomers, their numbers have now been overtaken by arrivals from countries such as India, Romania and Russia. More often than not, these are large families seeking homes with a correspondingly large number of bedrooms. Most are choosing to buy in the Dannemora area where the price of a four-bedroomed house can vary from the mid-$500,000s to $700,000, depending on school zones.

Many newly arrived British, Asian and South African immigrants are finding homes in North Shore City, particularly Browns Bay/Torbay, Greenhithe and selected pockets of the lower North Shore. Proximity to beaches, parks and reserves, shops, schools and employment opportunities make these areas attractive to the new migrants.

A few are disappointed, however, to find they need to spend more than the $400,000 'average' for a suburban family home quoted on the Immigration New Zealand site, and elsewhere, to satisfy their dream of a 'better life' in a new country.
Professionals' Alan Sandrey, principal of Shore City Property (Browns Bay), says his clients, no matter whether they are from the UK, Korea or South Africa, are trying to find a better standard of living in New Zealand.

*Department of Labour, Quarterly Migration Update March 2007

ENDS

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