Govt raises bar for migrant kids

By Lincoln Tan : Source NZ Herald

Work-permit-holders in the lower income bracket will find it a lot tougher to put their children in New Zealand schools from next month.

Immigration policy changes taking effect on November 30 will mean children of work-permit- holders under the essential-skills policy who earn $33,675 or less will no longer be considered as domestic students. Parents will therefore have to pay international-student fees if they want their children to study in local schools.

Domestic students enjoy free education, but international students have to pay fees of between $10,000 and $15,000 per child annually to study at primary, intermediate and high schools.

“The minimum income threshold must be met and maintained wholly by the salary or wages of a parent or parents holding the work permit,” Immigration New Zealand said in a circular distributed to immigration advisers.

“This is to ensure that the children have an appropriate level of financial support, given that these families are not eligible for state-funded income support.”

However, an Immigration spokesman told the Herald that children of parents whose initial work permit was issued before the end of this month could carry on with their studies as domestic students.

Migrant Action Trust, a migrant advocacy group, says the changes will just be another “trap” for migrant workers.

“Migrant workers will accept significantly lower pay – way below industry standards in their skilled area – just to cling on to the dream of residency, so many skilled migrant workers fall into the lower salary bracket,” said trust spokeswoman Agnes Granada.

“Because many come here for the sake of their children, they will become victims of this policy change.”

The trust presented a petition last Saturday asking Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman to grant amnesty for migrant workers who have lost their jobs in the recession.

A spokeswoman for Dr Coleman said the minister couldn’t comment as he had not yet seen the petition, but said the policy changes were aimed at ensuring adequate support for children of temporary migrant workers coming to New Zealand.

“The minimum income threshold helps ensure that essential-skills temporary work-permit-holders have a salary enough to look after a family in New Zealand,” the spokeswoman said. “The threshold is set at the lowest possible level to ensure children are adequately supported.”

In other policy changes taking effect on the same day, a special Philippines work policy will allow a limited number of skilled workers, including 100 nurses, 20 farm managers and 20 engineers, to work in New Zealand at any one time for a period of up to three years.

Immigration NZ said that under the policy, nurses from the Philippines would be able to work for a district health board while obtaining occupational registration.

A separate Vietnam special-work policy will also allow 100 chefs and 100 engineering professionals to work here under the same terms.

Meanwhile, Immigration NZ head Andrew Annakin announced last week that the Pacific division, set up Mary Anne Thompson in 2005 when she headed the service, would be reintegrated back into the core service.

An Auditor-General’s report in June found that problems were worse in the division than elsewhere in the agency, which is part of the Department of Labour.

Ms Thompson resigned last year after accusations of conflict of interest in helping her family members to gain residency.

Labour Department CEO Christopher Blake said the new structure “will ensure clear lines of accountability and that the workings of the Pacific division are aligned with the rest of Immigration New Zealand”.

“Recent review findings have informed the way Immigration New Zealand has organised and identified the requirements to deliver immigration services in the most effective and efficient ways. The change is designed to minimise risks to current work and any uncertainty and instability to the department.”

CHANGES TO IMMIGRATION POLICY

From November 30:

*Children of essential-skills work-permit-holders who earn below $33,675 will no longer be regarded as domestic students.

*Special work policies will allow 100 nurses, 20 farm managers and 20 engineers from the Philippines and 100 chefs and 100 engineers from Vietnam to work here.

*Nurses from the Philippines can now work for a district health board while obtaining New Zealand occupational registration

Residency ‘carrot’ lures rich investors

By Lincoln Tan : Source – New Zealand Herald

Thousands of wealthy foreigners are lining up to move here, just weeks out from the introduction of business migration laws that will grant them residency almost immediately.

Under a new Entrepreneur Plus immigration category – effective on November 30 – entrepreneurial migrants who create at least three fulltime jobs and invest $500,000 in their business will be offered a fast track to residency.

Currently, entrepreneur migrants are issued with a long-term business permit and can apply for residency only after two years.

Although there is no minimum investment capital required, neither is there a guarantee their residency application will be approved.

The new scheme will grant conditional residence virtually as soon as an application is made.

“There is no time requirement that you must have operated your business for to be successful under this category,” the Immigration New Zealand website says.

“The Entrepreneur Plus category provides a faster track to residence for migrants who can demonstrate they have been actively participating in business and contributing to New Zealand’s economic development.”

About 12,000 people have registered their interest in the scheme through the service’s website, with 189 looking to invest $1.5 million or more – a total potential investment of at least $283 million.

The service said it has also received formal expressions of interest from 63 potential investors, and 47 had been invited to apply.

The most interest had come from would-be business migrants in the United States, Britain, India, the Philippines and Ireland.

Property development, education, training and tourism were among the most popular areas for potential investment, an Immigration NZ spokesman said.

The Association for Migration and Investment said the Entrepreneur Plus category would provide an incentive to invest more money – and create more employment – as it removed migrants’ concerns about the need for future residency applications.

“Previously, the only option available for business applicants was the long-term business visa, which is not a residence visa, and many applicants under this policy sought to minimise their business investment,” it said.

But chairwoman Coral Wong believed only a small percentage of the 12,000 would apply. “It’s easy to get excited at the numbers, but $500,000 is still a lot of money for migrants to be investing in NZ and there won’t be masses who have that amount to spare.”

Marco Chan of Hong Kong, who plans to open a restaurant in Auckland, said the offer of “immediate residency” was key to his decision to apply under the new category.

CHANGE OF FORTUNES

PREVIOUS POLICY
Investment capital: None.
Job-creation requirement: None.
Length of time to residency: Available after two years.

NEW POLICY
Investment capital: $500,000.
Job-creation requirement: Minimum three fulltimers.
Length of time to residency: Conditional as soon as requirements met.

EARLY INTEREST
* 12,000 looking to invest at least $500,000.
* 189 want to invest $1.5 million or more.

What a change of mood can do for the property market?

Extract from the Crockers Market Research Issue 52, November 2009 Last month we reported on the relative high point in net permanent and long term migration levels – with New Zealand’s net gain in population rising, we showed, primarily as result of fewer departures rather than more arrivals. Even with most new arrivals settling in Auckland, current migration patterns are not enough to account for the buoyancy of the local property market. So what is driving it? In our view, it’s latent demand. That is, people who have been putting off buying because of the recession, and who – collectively – have suddenly decided that, recession or no recession, it’s time to get on with life. It’s not that we’ve suddenly all become optimistic. In fact, we’re still worried about the prospect of losing our jobs (market research company Synovate reported in their May ’09 research study that for 33% of New Zealanders their biggest worry was them or the main household income earner losing their job – up from 29% six months earlier). In fact, New Zealand has one of the highest levels of concern in the Western world around job loss, way ahead of closest neighbour Australia. Despite this gloomy mood, the same research shows that people are now getting on with their lives. In November 2008, 23% of those surveys said they were delaying a major life decision. By May this year, this figure had tumbled to just 16%. Of those 16%, most said the two biggest decisions they were delaying were a change of job and buying into the property market. Further research since then, including data from the Westpac McDermott Miller survey, shows consumer confidence has risen despite GDP still failing to reach positive figures. While this confidence may be fragile, there is little doubt that people are bored with the recession, and are trying to turn themselves around attitudinally, as well as financially. The buoyant Auckland property market is perhaps the clearest sign so far that people have stopped delaying the big decisions in life, and are looking positively to the future.

UK Immigrants unknowingly entering into NZ Sale and Purchase Agreements

A new Blog Post by Steve Koerber regarding new immigrants purchasing homes with major leaky home issues, got me thinking; I back Steve up completely on this stuff and there is also another key issue when it comes to new immigrants buying NZ property, specifically people from the UK.

According to Statistics NZ – 18,361 people came to live in NZ from the UK from July 2008 – July 2009. The house buying process in the UK is somewhat different to NZ. In the UK, a ‘Offer of Purchase’ is made to the vendor from the buyer via an Estate Agent. Ok, so you may be thinking, this is not too different to the NZ way of putting in an offer on a property via a ‘Sale and Purchase Agreement’; but here is the difference: The UK offer is not a legally binding contract like the NZ one is. You can walk away from the UK one at any time and you are also at risk right up until the day of Exchange (our Unconditional day) of being Guzumped or Guzundered.

So, my issue is that UK immigrants are at risk of unknowingly making offers on NZ property and not understanding at the offset that the offer is a legally binding document and they are at risk of losing their deposit or worse.

To aid in this issue, I think that NZ Real Estate Agents should at all times ensure that Immigrants are made aware of the risks of an unconditional Sale and Purchase agreement and advise to set conditions especially a full building report in support of Steve’s blog post as mentioned above. Posted by Jodi Cottle

http://jodicottle.blogspot.com

Net migration at five-year high

 

Dr Ganesh Nana, chief economist at BERL

 

The latest annual net migration figure of more than 17,000 is the highest in five years.

The figure is still well down from 2003’s high of more than 40,000, but it is much higher than last year’s paltry 4400.

 Source : http://www.3news.co.nz

Confidence building on “tough” job market

By JAMES WEIR – The Dominion Post

Workers think there will be more jobs around in a year, and that they will be making more money, according to a bank survey. But for now, times are still “extremely tough” on the job front, with unemployment expected to keep rising to about 7 per cent in the middle of next year. Wage rises are slowing down fast. Workers are feeling much more secure about their jobs and confidence about the labour market is improving, according to the Westpac McDermott Miller Employment Confidence survey. As job security improved, that would eventually translate to a greater willingness to spend, and a greater mood to demand higher wages, Westpac senior economist Donna Purdue said. The bank survey’s overall employee confidence index rose 6.9 points between the June and September quarters to reach 103. It was the second biggest quarterly gain since the survey began in June 2004. An index above 100 indicates there are more optimists than pessimists, while a number below 100 indicates that pessimists outnumber optimists. The survey was carried out in the first half of September. The survey showed the number of workers being paid more than a year ago had fallen. A net 15 per cent of those surveyed said they were better off than a year ago, down from a net 19 per cent in June. More people said jobs were hard to get, at a net 66.5 per cent in September, from a net 65.3 per cent in June. Both of those indicators were the lowest since the survey started five years ago, indicating that many people were getting little or no wage rise. Sales of big ticket products such as cars and furniture were hit the hardest in a time of low job security, so as security improved there should be a lift in sales. The survey result suggested that the worst was over for the jobs downturn.

Population growth helps housing market

3 News

 

New Zealand had its highest annual net migration gain in nearly five years during the 12 months to August, figures published by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) today show.

 

The gain in population was seen as helping the recovery of the housing market.

Global financial turmoil was thought to have lifted the number of New Zealanders returning after living overseas, as well as reducing the numbers seeking to live elsewhere.

In the year to August, New Zealand’s net migration gain was 15,600, up from 4900 in the August 2008 year, and the highest annual net gain since the November 2004 year, SNZ said.

The 87,500 people arriving on a permanent and long term (PLT) basis was up 800 or 1 percent on a year earlier. At the same time, the 71,900 PLT departures were down 9900 or 12 percent on a year earlier.

For just the month of August, PLT arrivals exceeded departures by 1600, compared to 500 a year earlier.

There were 2000, or 29 percent, fewer PLT departures last month, including 1800 fewer departures to Australia and 200 fewer to Britain.

PLT arrivals for the month were down 900 from August 2008, with 1000 fewer arrivals of non-New Zealand citizens, partly offset by 200 more arrivals of New Zealand citizens, SNZ said.

PLT arrivals of non-New Zealand citizens had been declining since April.

Seasonally adjusted, PLT arrivals exceeded departures by 1600 in August, down from 2400 in July, but similar to the level in June.

NZPA

http://www.3news.co.nz/Population-growth-helps-housing-market/tabid/421/articleID/121969/cat/537/Default.aspx?ArticleID=121969

Migration stats remain strong

GOOD NEWS: New Zealand gained 1600 more new migrants than those who left the country permanently in August, with a slowdown in the past exodus to Australia.

By JAMES WEIR – The Dominion Post

New Zealand gained 1600 more new migrants than those who left the country permanently in August, with a slowdown in the past exodus to Australia, according to latest official figures.

The net migration gain for August was down from 2400 in July according to Statistics NZ figures.

Far fewer people are leaving for Australia, down by almost 2000 in the month.

However, the annual net migration gain of 15,600 for the past 12 months remains well up on the almost 5000 gain in the year to August 2008.

The stronger migration figures are supporting a recovery in the housing market and will help underpin retail sales.

Meanwhile, overseas tourists arriving in New Zealand in August were down 1 per cent on the same month last year, with a strong rise from Australian travellers offsetting a slump in other markets.

Visitor arrivals (161,100) fell 1 per cent in August 2009 compared with August 2008, but visitor arrivals from Australia remained strong (up 9,200 or 12 percent).

The decrease in visitor arrivals was driven by fewer visitors from Asia, with Japan (down 3,500 or 39 per cent), Korea (down 2,100 or 34 per cent), and China (down 1,900 or 29 percent) contributing most of the decline.

Visitor arrivals in the August 2009 year (2.4 million) were down 69,700 (3

per cent) from the August 2008 year.

New Zealanders are still taking holidays overseas as much as a year ago, but are not going as far.

New Zealand residents departed on 176,300 short-term overseas trips in August 2009, unchanged from August 2008, Statistics NZ said.

The increase in trips to Australia (up 3,600 or 4 per cent), boosted by travel to the Bledisloe Cup, offset falls to other destinations, including the United States (down 1,400 or 15 percent) and the United Kingdom (down 900 or 9 percent).

For the August 2009 year, short-term departures of New Zealand residents numbered 1.9 million, down 76,400 (4 per cent) from the previous year.

 http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/2885502/Migration-stats-remain-strong

House market in top 10 with 1.3pc price fall

New Zealand is holding its own globally, with only a slight drop in prices Photo / Richard Robinson

By Anne Gibson – NZ Herald

New Zealand has ranked in the top 10 housing markets in the world, but prices have still dropped. It had one of the smallest price falls lately and is ranked alongside Europe for toughing out the slump. Real estate consultancy Knight Frank has released its international house price index which compared house price changes in the second quarter of last year with the same period this year. That showed New Zealand was ninth least affected out of 32 countries. “It now appears that house prices are starting to stabilise across the world,” said Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank. BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander said the list of pessimists expecting house prices to fall was shrinking. Even one of the most powerful arms of the state turned out to be wrong, he noticed. And it has said so. “This week, Treasury revised away their previous prediction that average house prices would fall by 10 per cent over the coming year,” he said. “Now they expect prices will rise slightly, though wisely don’t predict by how much. “There are simply too many factors in play to take a solid stab at how much prices will move in the coming year or three. But unless one believes the world economy is going to slip back into a potential depression scenario there is little reason for believing house prices will fall.” . Not everyone is delighted with the housing recovery. BNZ managing director Andrew Thorburn this week said the country’s $130 billion overdraft was unsustainable. In a turn which surprised some commentators because of banks’ role in fuelling the property market, Mr Thorburn worried about consumers loading up with debt. Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard also fretted about the housing recovery last week. “We are always very alert to not wanting to spark off an unnecessary or unbalanced housing revival,” he said. Since the start of the year, housing market activity had increased. “Although still at levels comparable to previous recessions, housing turnover has risen noticeably from the lows seen through calendar 2008. “In addition, house prices have begun to increase, mainly due to unusually low numbers of houses being offered for sale,” Dr Bollard said. Real estate websites were also busier last month. Trade Me Property had 938,185 visitors, up 5 per cent on July. Realestate.co.nz had 395,965 unique browsers, up 7 per cent, Harcourts.co.nz had 185,687 (+5.83 per cent ) and Open2view.co.nz 124,646 (+9.51 per cent). Real estate agent Michael Boulgaris said cheap money was helping housing recover. “With the ASB cutting its floating mortgage rate by 65 base points to a new low of 5.75 per cent, the spring property boom is yielding increased confidence among buyers, vendors and agents,” he said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/property/news/article.cfm?c_id=8&objectid=10597115

Unexpected Costs when Purchasing a Property

Ian Mellett, Principal of Auckland Law Firm - Quay Law

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please click on link to view article on Unexpected Costs when Purchasing a Property in New Zealand. 

This article was written by Ian Mellett of Quay Law Barrister and Solicitor.