PHOTO: Immigration
With the borders closed, it was no surprise that net migration collapsed in April. There were just 729 migrant arrivals (582 NZ citizens) and 681 departures (634 non-citizens), for a net balance of 48. For context, over the previous 12 months, net migration had averaged 6,500 per month – and this has been a key source of population growth in NZ (both in the past year and over a much longer time horizon too), and hence put upwards pressure on residential property demand and prices.
Since COVID-19 has set in, many commentators have argued that net migration is set for a long collapse and that this will remove a key leg from the property market. To some extent, this is true – certainly, you would think that non-citizen arrivals to NZ will stay low for a long time, given the likelihood of it remaining pretty tough to actually enter the country.
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