Not when the local is downsizieng from a 4 bed house and garden to a 2 bed apartment for retirement, or they simply die and it's local's kids that sell it.

There's a simple solution to avoiding buying in expensive locations though - buy in cheap locations.

So the local sells to a foreign buyer and downsizes. That’s great for them. But their kids are now priced out of the market, and will never own a home but rent from someone who lives 15h flight away.

Sure. Life sucks doesn't it

Fortunately there are many places that someone in NZ can buy a house.

https://www.realestate.co.nz/3379275

For example is proavly affordable on minimum wage of $32k, certainly with two incomes.

I’m not sure the point you’re trying to make here.

It’s a town of 1700 people, described by Wikipedia as a “gang town”. If your point is that it’s possible to buy a house in NZ, sure. But quality of life is totally a thing, no?

And even then, your example requires a $40k deposit while earning $32k, a salary which doesn’t appear to have a whole lot left over and the end of the week.

Local's kids gotta live somewhere too.

My understanding is that skyrocketing housing prices aren't much of a benefit to anyone who doesn't own more than one home. Because you always need to live in at least one place, your economic elasticity only kicks in when the number of homes you buy and sell is greater than one.

There aren’t any cheap locations. Fractionally less expensive, but still many multiples of a yearly wage.

You want somewhere that's affordable for 1x yearly wage? Care to point to some time in history that was possible?

Having New Zealand cities with average prices at 10x yearly average household income and a NZ average at over 6x is a radical departure from NZ’s historically narrow rich/poor divide.

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/house-price-income-multi...

https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentis...

Christchurch is 4.87 times median income. New Plymouth 5.03. Hell parts of the capital are under 5x.

That's quite a normal multiplier in today's low interest and 2 income world (in parts of London the multipler is 38!)

What you're saying is that you can't afford to live in nice areas of Auckland. So don't.