New Zealand has got a previously unheard of problem – homeless families are sleeping in cars, while nearly half of the houses in our largest city Auckland (49%) are being snapped up by foreign investors and then sitting there empty!  The Chinese were the biggest group.  Last year in June it was 41% of Auckland homes. 

John Key, our prime minister and former banker who worked at Merrill Lynch, glibly believed most of the investors in the property market would be locals.  It was clear the government either didn’t have a clue or didn’t care.  NZ doesn’t have a foreign buyers register or any rules around speculation on houses.

Last year a whistle-blower from the real estate industry said mainland Chinese money snapped up at least 80 per cent of residential sales in parts of Auckland in March but were nearer 90 per cent in May, 2015.  Of course…