sign up log in
Want to go ad-free? Find out how, here.

Net migration surges to yet another record high of 67,391 in February year as long term arrivals keep rising, departures stabilise

Property
Net migration surges to yet another record high of 67,391 in February year as long term arrivals keep rising, departures stabilise

The country's migration-fuelled population grew by a record 67,391 people in the year to February, driven by on-going growth in new arrivals.

The latest figures from Statistics NZ show that 124,245 migrants arrived in this country on a permanent and long term basis in the year to February, with that number increasing by about 50% since the year to February 2011 when there were just 82,772 arrivals.

Also in the year to February, 56,854 people left New Zealand on a permanent or long term basis, down 24% compared to the 74,523 who left long term in the year to February 2011.

The figures show that while long term departures appear to have stabilised, long term arrivals are continuing to increase and that is driving the big gains in population growth from migration.

'Heading for 70k'

Westpac is predicting the net gain from migration is likely to hit 70,000 in the year to June.

"Net migration has gone from strength to strength over the past few years, consistently defying the most bullish of forecasts," Westpac's chief economist Dominick Stephens said in First Impressions newsletter on the latest numbers.

 "It now looks highly likely that net annual migration will pass 70,000 by June, taking the population growth rate to a post-1974 high of 2.1%."

The biggest sources of population growth from migration were India which provided a net gain of 12,568 in the year to February, followed by China and Hong Kong 10,362, Philippines 5212, the UK, 3666, France 3070 and Germany 3025.

The biggest growth over the last two years has come from India and the Philippines, with the net gain form both of those countries more than doubling over the last two years, and from China with the net gain from that country up by 58% over the last two years.

There was also a net gain of 1606 people from Australia in the year to February, compared to a net loss of 14,998 people across the Tasman two years previously. 

This country had a net loss of 190 New Zealand citizens in the month of February and a net gain of 6150 citizens from other countries.

The biggest destination for incoming migrants remains Auckland, with the city's population increasing by at least 31,035 in the year to February.

However there were another 15,620 net arrivals that did not state where they intended to lived and it's likely that around 10,000 of them would also have settled in Auckland, giving the city total population growth from migration that was probably around 41,000 in the year to February, putting further pressure on housing, transport, and other infrastructure services such as health and education.

After Auckland the biggest stated destinations for migrants were Canterbury 7140, Wellington 2682, Waikato 2567 bay of Plenty 2253 and Otago 1636.

Across the whole country, 31% of all arrivals were on work visas, 25% were New Zealanders returning to this country, 23% had student visas, although most of these were were likely on a pathway to residency which assists them to gain permanent residency once they have completed their studies and gained a job, and 12% arrived with residency visas.

Net long term migration

Select chart tabs

You can receive all of our property articles automatically by subscribing to our free email Property Newsletter. This will deliver all of our property-related articles, including auction results and interest rate updates, directly to your in-box 3-5 times a week. We don't share your details with third parties and you can unsubscribe at any time. To subscribe just click on this link, scroll down to "Property email newsletter"and enter your email address.

We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.

Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.

66 Comments

"More coming"

Does that mean more content or more migrants?

Up
0

Both!

Up
0

way, way, way more are coming! It's a good thing. Keep em' coming I say. More taxes paid, jobs filled, houses bought and traded What could possibly go wrong?

Up
0

A lot.

Up
0

"More taxes paid."
Or not paid as the case might be.
" Baucher was approached by a bakery owner who was caught taking cash from customers and not ringing it up in the till. The man, a migrant, didn't understand how the tax system worked and thought he could get away with fooling the IRD. Not so.

By coincidence, another baker, Long Soun of Taupo, was prosecuted and given an eight-month sentence of home detention in January for a similar offence. Details of this and other cases can be found at tinyurl.com/IRDprosecutions.

It's likely the IRD officers checked out the establishment. They might buy a coffee and sit there for a while watching to see if cash transactions are rung up. Baucher says he has heard of cases where tax inspectors have bought a takeaway meal and deconstructed it to determine a restaurant's gross margins."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/personal-finance/news/article.cfm?c_id=12&obj…

Up
0

Small business owners migrant or otherwise are well aware of how tax systems operate. All my customers were small shop keepers and I saw from them enough fiddles to furnish a symphony orchestra. There are many ways to extract cash from a small business without reducing the GP. Many small businesses would not survive without a fiddle or three. Remember that for the tax man it is a 9 to 5 job, for the small business man his business is 24/7. Small business owners from my experience do not pay their fair share of tax but then they work three times as hard for their money.

Up
0

...gosh... I'm honoured by these numbers, it feels so great to give away my way of life... but when is Key gonna post me my badge?

http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/key-migration-numbers-badge-of-honour…

Up
0

Rastus.. point taken,it might be all ye will ever get,,in return...except the bill...will be immense.

A badge of Honour might be worthwhile donating to someone who admits he was wrong, so many,many times.

Someone who does not expect the taxpayer to ever pay for ones sins, ones lambasting of a poor journalist, ones waste of money over a flag waving enterprise, ones participation in forcing Sordid Energy into liquidation, with ones excess demands, ones failure to foresee and forestall Dairy Farmers demise and consequent bailouts, from ones mates overseas, ones excessive worldwide travel and being at odds with probably 50% of actual voters and their wishes and their children's wishes...a simple roof over their heads.

Financial acumen and common sense is severely lacking as far as I can see, one is perhaps trying to make us all bankrupt.??. One step at a time.

Like others gone before.

Or is one trying for one knighthood, like previous contenders, who almost bankrupted us all before with their grandiose schemes and some may remember the 27 or so Finance Companies forced into liquidation, from which some will never, ever recover. Mostly elderly then as now...One reason, why one should never trust one bank, or all of em.

One will remember, but will the many?.

But we shall see,,,taxpayers..and the elderly savers, whose savings and pensions one is wasting away again...will we not.

Or is one just a figure head for a one world currency, one of many....a broke one.?.

One will see...this one...I have a long memory and I often wonder where the money goes...and who is the bigger mug.

Saver or Saviour. One shall see....?

Up
0

More fuel for Key's rock star economy. Anything to stay at the top. I miss Auckland, the way it used to be.

Up
0

Does NZ get a say in whether we want this much immigration? Maybe a vote for Winston?

Up
0

Ironic as 40,000-50,000 Kiwis moved to Australia annually from 2007-2013.

Up
0

How many of that number were born here against use us as a back door, not surprised Aussie made it tougher for " kiwis "

Up
0

Notice the selectivity of published statistics

If you arrive into NZ as a Kazakhstani, obtain, PR or citizenship, then hop off to Australia, when you leave NZ you are classified as a Kiwi

When you come back you are again classified as a Kiwi

Up
0

No way!

Up
0

We need two lots to do the work and one lot to provide a fillip to the Awkland Housing Market. It may have a flow on effect, affecting some more than others.

Some are banking on it.

Unfortunately the one lot stiffed the Dairy Farmers so they could come here and buy up the land, after the houses, when they have milked all the Dairy Farmers to death.

Personally I believe this is all a ploy by those in cahoots with overseas banks, printing away their obligations and funding the demise.

But then being a conspiracy believer, I trust no one Country to not hedge their bets as they have all misled the other, when buying up each others resources with funny money, so just quid-quo-pro and dollar averaging and yauning debt, all leveraged to the hilt to infinity and probably beyond.

(What the hell are they looking at Mars for...solid gold?, like our Flag a possible waste of money, time and effort, by a totally bewildered National enterprise).

That anyone would think otherwise in this multi-trillion printed pretty pictured, online transactional derivative based bonanza escapes me. But then I thought money talked, but never in zeros and ones to such a large amount.

( it still does with some, under the table...I think that is why they have so many meetings abroad on a regular basis)

I have had it up to here, with Politicians and Bankers, importing fraud and ruining peoples lives. Can we trust no one these days ...See below..

This was a Crime Free Zone, until it became mandatory to inflict it worldwide.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-20/must-watch-video-veneer-justic…

Or am I just another dreamer. That Justice would serve us all, equally and without favour.

Up
0

We're blowing hot air into a property bubble through migration, and we're giving it strength by lowering interest rates. Short term result, great capital gains for greedy landlords and property investors. Long term result, a generation of New Zealanders who cannot afford homes or live with their lives governed by the banks.

Great policies New Zealand - well done!

Up
0

It's not just greedy landlords and property investors. Ma and Pa get capital gains too. Do you believe it's only property investors that vote? We are a small minority of the overall group benefiting. Keep that in mind next time you're bleeting at the scapegoats.

Up
0

I don't care about Ma and Pa getting capital gains. They aren't the cause of the underlying issue. Its people that buy multiple properties, people that speculate on capital gains. How many do you own Machiavelli?

We seem to have misplaced the idea that houses are for people to live in and build families, not build their wealth portfolio.

Up
0

As I read this article I felt my Auckland house rise a little. Rise more in value. Keep on coming boys and girls.

Up
0

Why else would they want such high immigration? I reckon an emergency Auckland CGT is needed to pay for all the new roads, hips, knees, schools, free English tuition, student allowances, prisons, pensions, gold cards etc that this influx will demand. And as an emergency solution to the house price inflation, concrete over rangitoto and full in with 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom on 300sqm

Up
0

JK knows that if he stopped immigration numbers then the air would disappear from the property bubble. Prices would crash. That coupled to the dairy down turn would see New Zealand go into recession and the National party would be ousted.

So for now, the plan is to continue to leave the gates wide open. It's the only thing he can do to keep the party going. Bit of a false prophet IMHO.

Up
0

Its a bit like FIFA - we all knew it was wrong but until the FBI got involved nothing was done. I know who our spiv Blatter is, who will be our FBI? NZ First?

Up
0

It took the stuff reporter nearly 1 hour this morning to travel to work 17kms. It's only going to get worse

Up
0

Causing a great big problem. Been causing it for some years. And we keep on letting it happen. Brilliant.

Up
0

with no production increases are we not just dividing our wealth between more and more people ?

Up
0

While I prefer to stay out of this debate completely I find myself forced to agree. The more people in the country the more our GDP is divided between them. So yes you are correct and this is echoed by economists from many different viewpoints.

Up
0

Yep, isn't GDP per capita dropping as planned already?

Up
0

Awesome hope it continues. New Zealand needs more youthful migration considering NZ has a fast ageing population & youth leaving for jobs overseas. 1 million Kiwis live overseas. 40,000-50,000 Kiwis moved to Australia annually during the mining boom.

Outside of Auckland NZ has many dying regions. The South Island needs more migration concentrated there. More migrants should be encouraged even further to move to the regions instead of to Auckland.

Up
0

A million kiwis living overseas doesn't sound like a badge of honour.

Up
0

Yeah. Read today that young kiwis are putting off having families to save the large deposit required for a house. House prices that have partly increased due to massive immigration.

Up
0

Youthful migration? You're obviously not from Auckland then. Many of the new migrants I meet need walkers to make it to the dairy.

Up
0

Try the N Shore hospital, they don't need more nurses, they need more Mandarin interpreters for all the ol folk that have been left in NZ under the "Centre of Gravity" rule by the bright young things who have returned to the family business.

Up
0

..crow22 ..you've got it all wrong. The regions are not dying due to lack of people, they are dying due to lack of jobs. Merely opening the immigration flood gates as per The Key approach is a nonsense. In times past the regions had forestry, fishing, mining and so on......that's all gone. you can't even go to a fish market in the regions....a fairly obvious example of how jobs have been exported form these areas.

So forget immigration, all that will do is give temp respite while the imported cash that comes with it keeps the property scam going for just a little longer. The pie is not growing, just more mouths wanting a feed... And the greediest feeders are key and his henchmen.

Up
0

As far as I know.... The reality of a country running chronic current acct. deficits is that it needs ongoing Foreign investment and immigration..

I think warren Buffet used the analogy of selling off little bits of the family farm in order to maintain a certain standard of living....

Not such a great way to leave a legacy for future generations...

Up
0

Maybe this item below is why your children cannot afford a mortgage in Awkland.
But Parental Leave may be an issue.

National have as usual ..........other issues. This is just a Friendly Forum.

Not a matter of any urgency.. .it seems..housing your offspring..in Awkland.

(Or anywhere else in NZ...for that matter).

It is the Councils fault, Not, repeat not, a National crisis. National just have no issues, that are that.......extreme.??.

Oh and by the way, Climate Change is being talked about for a plan, so do not put me through the wringer...man...I am only here, getting hot under the collar.

Climate Change is not a matter of any urgency, perhaps...either....but it may be a bit more pragmatic...YAY.

Heated discussion...in another fashion...in sunny Cambridge..not in Parliament....where perhaps it should be.??????

Bbbbbut when do they Plan to do what is needed to be done..under any Urgency in Parliament...or is that reserved for MP's pay rises as per usual, I coolly ask this Friendly Forum.....here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry about the cut and paste...may have to read between the lines...a little...I borrowed the script below, not wrote it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cabinet Minister Paula Bennett visited Cambridge on
Friday for a Friendly Forum hosted by MP Louise Upston
at the Cambridge Health and Community Centre.
Up to 70 people attended the function, where Minis-
ter Bennett answered a number of questions from the
public, including some “heated” statements from a few
dissatisfied locals.
At the conclusion of the meeting she joked, “You guys
put me through the ringer man!”
With the roles of Minister for Climate Change Issues,
Minister for Social Housing, and Minister of State Servic
-
es, Paula addressed a number of issues at the meeting.
She spoke on the issue of parental leave – noting
that government has recently passed a bill to extend
the amount of paid parental leave to 18 weeks, which
comes into effect on April 1st.
She was also asked, in relation to the National Party
hitting 80 years this year, which political figures she has
admired. She stated that from a personal sense, she ad-
mired her grandmother, and in a professional sense, she
admired figures such a Jenny Shipley and John Key.
Minister Bennett was also asked to address the issue
of climate change, to which she stated, “I think climate
change is real... To get there (to tackle the problem) we
need to work on a plan.”
She referred to the Emissions Trading Scheme and
the Paris Agreement, adding: “We need to come up with
something sustainable but pragmatic.”
Minister Bennett faced some much harder questions
too, with one man asking:
“The price of rentals, in Auckland for instance, is more
than (what people) can earn... Why has the government
made such a monumental stuff up of a basic thing like
housing?”
Paula responded stating that the issue was local gov
-
ernment’s responsibility. “For central government to
step in on that would have to be in extreme cases,” she
said. “I share your anger on this issue, because I think
that generations of New Zealanders are being really
badly done not just by the decisions of today, but the
decisions of the past... but central government inter
-
vention (in local government matters) is an extreme
way to go.”
“Quite frankly we can’t be held to blame for that.”
Though some questions were rather heated, over all
the Friendly Forum was indeed friendly, with a number
of engaging issues being addressed.

Up
0

Now I know how Maori must have felt when the Europeans arrived here , and it dawned on them that things had changed forever .

Soon we will need a new Treaty .............. between the Pakhea and the newcomers

Up
0

"Net migration has gone from strength to strength over the past few years, consistently defying the most bullish of forecasts," said Westpac Bank chief economist Dominick Stephens. "It now looks highly likely that annual net migration will surpass 70,000 by June, taking the population growth rate to a post-1974 high of 2.1 percent.

Strong population growth is generating strong demand for residential construction activity and is supporting economic growth. Population growth is also boosting the supply side of the economy, limiting wage and inflation pressures."

Let's get this clear. The RB is lowering the OCR to boost inflation and imposing LVRs etc to control house prices. The government is allowing unprecedented immigration which effectively nullifies those policies.

Savers are being hammered, our kids can't get on the housing ladder and are having the wages forced down by immigrants. Winston will sort it out.

Up
0

"Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally, or globally?"
Albert Bartlett

Up
0

Yes! Happy to see them coming...it's really important we can create a multi-cultural society here in Auckland. So much more interesting as we celebrate each others' differences. Yay!

Up
0

Why on earth did you come to New Zealand

If it is not multi-cultural enough and not interesting enough for you - why
What brought you here?

Up
0

Would agree with you IF it was spread amongst all countries BUT we have three countries making up over 70% of immigration-and student visas so it's not diversity its three cultures slowly taking over

Up
0

Try visiting Queenstown you will hear accents from all over the world, it's a great place where all cultures mingle. A lot are on working visas serving tourists.
More Asian tourists that I have seen in a long time and a few Indian ones what is strange about that is Queenstown does not have anywhere near the number of ethnic eateries of a place like Auckland so there choices to eat out are limited unless they are willing to try something outside the norm

Up
0

Seventy Thousand people (70,000)

That's more than the population of two large suburbs
It's the same size as the normally resident population of the City of Dunedin

That requires what?
One new hospital
Three new schools

Kilometres of new roads
Water reticulation
A new power grid
And more

Where are all these people going?
They still keep coming
But where are they depositing themselves

Trailer Parks? Camping grounds?
Maybe there isn't a housing shortage after all
Existing utilities and infrastructure must burst at the seams soon
They come in, use it, (abuse it - see smalltown above) and don't pay a cent in providing it

Up
0

Haven't got the time to attend to it

Right now our parliament is all a-twitter about wicked campers and fining them $200,000 a pop

How many felons have been apprehended and charged with money laundering through our real-estate

Up
0

Typical find a non issue and make a campaign out of it to take people's minds of the real issues

Up
0

Shhhh, now how about that flag eh?

Up
0

Bad Luck Road

As Boatman says above
We need a new treaty

Try this for a take-over by stealth

8 Mar 2016
Name Change for Dominion Rd
We dont like it - it means "Bad Luck Rd" in Chinese
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=116…

Then ask yourself why, if they were deadly serious in that assertion, why, did they infest Dominion Rd so willingly - are their numbers now so significant they feel confident in exercising their muscle

Up
0

There are many areas with just as many ethnic business clumped together will they get a name as well, will we get an Indian town or a Phillipines town what about a pommy town.

Up
0

In the month of February there was a net gain of 6150 citizens from other countries minus a net loss of 190 NZ citizens for a "NET" gain of 5960 for the month

At that rate we are heading for 71,500 plus
We have gone from 48,000 to 67,000 in less than two years

Up
0

The student loophole needs tightening ASAP. We need to improve the quality of migration.

Up
0

What will Andrew Little do about this? These numbers are getting absolutely bloody ridiculous! He has dipped his toe in the water and been hammered by the MSM. He needs the courage of his convictions because he was actually right in the first place. Clearly Winston is a champion of the immigration issue but he needs wider support.

Up
0

Just watched JK on the nation he said the government is spending 100's millions on new schools and up grading schools to cope. Then you have the extra teachers. What about health?
Do the extra taxes pay for the extra expense I would think not if GDP fell

Up
0

Did he say where these new schools were - or was it a standard Key throw-away line?

Up
0

Just watched JK on the nation he said the government is spending 100's millions on new schools and up grading schools to cope. Then you have the extra teachers. What about health?
Do the extra taxes pay for the extra expense I would think not if GDP fell
Brushed off the housing side as a non issue as usual all about supply, when question about FHB had no real answers

Up
0

Really? 100s of millions? while our old schools which seem to be in a desperate state of repair go neglected. Weird...

Up
0

If they have to come in why not require them first settle in the provinces where there is underutilised existing infrastructure? How is it even possible to get a student visa to study in Auckland when the joint is clearly bursting at the seams? Surely it would be dead easy for them to be required to study in Napier or Invercargill or Palmeston North? Surely its our country and we should get to set the rules.

Up
0

.because there is no work there...which is why people left.

Dairy is stuffed and the original reason for the provinces, being largely primary, such as logging, forestry, farm development, coastal trade and fishing etc is gone/reduced and needs only mimimal labour (how long before a drone does the morning farm beat?). Retail is dead...online has killed that. Which leaves what?

Fill em up with Ryman homes, export the poor from south aucks, force migrants to lcoate there...theres an option.

Expecting peole to sit and then just trade amongst themslves is the gapping flaw in this govts appraoach. Thats why gdp per head is dropping....the pie is only so big. So Key brings in more and more people to fight over the scraps.

Up
0

That's actually not true, at least in regard in the South. There is actually very low unemployment here and in fact many businesses struggle to fill vacancies. Housing is much cheaper and communities much stronger. There is huge potential to add extra value to the primary products we now export in their raw form and tourism is booming. We are in a much stronger position to absorb extra population than Auckland.

Up
0

..3.8%...and no doubt rising. Dairy, tiwai point to come. I was in Queesntown recently with a chinese friend. .. her observation of the workers (ie tourist workers) ...'all the staff look so unhappy'. I'd noticed the same. Ripped off and overworked I'd say. Look after your locals, train up those youth, stop looking for the soft optons ie cheap imported desperate foreigners.

Up
0

I agree your greater point re overall immigration. My point is if they are coming in why not target them towards regions that have got some capacity to absorb them, rather than let them flood Auckland. I wouldn't use Queenstown as a proxy for the south, it has similar affordability issues to Auckland. Students seem to make up a large proportion of immigrants and it should be straight forward to make those courses available in the provinces to stop them flooding Auckland.

Up
0

This topic about immigration and migrants has been going around the dance floor for the 6 years I've been around here. The concerns have all been foreseen and anticipated. Every possible solution has been canvassed.

All a waste of time and breath and electrons

The Government is on a straight-a-way going hell-bent-for-leather looking for imaginary GDP growth regardless of the consequences

As for persuading migrants to go to the regions, best of luck with that. Might get some non-asian tree-changers go for that. Asians only want the big city

read this http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/home-property/78002838/mauku-manslaug…

The current owners of 21 years have never lived here".
"At that time it was an orchard and they found it overwhelming. They were Asian and they realised they weren't farmers, so they've just been sitting on it"

Up
0

Sorry Iconoclast, dont agree that nothing can be done.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/78149716/international-students-aquacul…

Up
0

I can see that most of the comments are pretty consistent. Apart from the" embrace all the worlds cultures,' types. Trouble is those big population culture' s don't think the same. Employ their own and take over. We need to pressure our PMs . Get off your backsides and make an appointment with them. Making comments here isn't going to do anything.

Up
0

Take a look at what is happening in Brussels right now if you need more motivation.

Up
0

Yep get off your back sides. I have messaged political parties of late...interestingly, the feedback I got was they too are concerned but worried about how the media bites back (racism etc).

My suggestion is for a national debate....we got the flag reforendum without asking, if Key gets asked for a debate by enough people, he will have to listen at some point ....Keeping it politically and race neutral is the key...

Up
0

In the light of the Brussels bombings, how can the NZ public be assured that each immigrant and offshore property owner/intermittent NZ resident has been fully vetted and checked for sympathies/associations/potential for extremism/terrorism/incitement and promoting anti-western ideologies.
As seen in France & Belgium, once they are in the country there is no tracking or checking of their activities.
NZ must be one of the most naive passive societies for this kind of potential.

Up
0