Since I would like to visit other countries, I applied for a "permanent resident" visa as soon as I was eligible, which I just received. In addition to permission to return, it also allows me to vote and apply for public benefits and basically give me all the rights of a natural-born citizen. In fact, there's absolutely no benefit for applying for New Zealand citizenship unless you're planning to move to Australia.
Since 1973, Australia and New Zealand have had a reciprocal agreement recognising each other's citizens. If I decided to emigrate to Australia on my US or UK passports, I would have to apply for a temporary work permit and basically start from scratch. If I had an NZ passport, however, I could just fly over and start work tomorrow. (I wouldn't be able to vote or be eligible for public benefits in Australia.)
Since the reciprocal arrangement was implemented, many more people have emigrated from New Zealand to Australia, because the standard of living was generally higher. However, in the past few years, as Australian mining has declined, many kiwis have been moving back to New Zealand. This has resulted in a very heated property market. Here is a chart from realtors Barfoot and Thomson, of median house prices and median rental value (per week) in Auckland between 1996 and 2015::
When we moved from Kapiti to Wellington in 2015, we decided to rent for a year so we could get to know the area. At the time, the average house price was $401,000; as of October it was $528,200. That's a 31% jump in less than three years!
The new Labour government has implemented several measures to try and reduce house prices, including limiting migration, limiting investment by overseas buyers, and requiring more capital from speculators. They are also looking at implementing measures to improve rental properties, such as requiring insulation and implementing a "warrant of fitness" checklist, which will reduce the demand for investment properties.
These efforts may, in time, result in lower house prices; however, by restricting the number of rental properties, they are having an immediate effect on rental prices! Today there was a news article that the number of available rentals in Wellington was down 71% from last year! The law of supply and demand indicates that rental prices are going to soar.
Our lease is up in April, which is good for us because the vast majority of houses are rented in January and February, as people move before school starts; during the rest of the year the market is very quiet. If our lease was up during that period, there would be very strong demand and the landlord would be tempted to significantly increase the rent. I'm hoping in April he won't see that demand and will leave it alone. In 2019, we'll have one child either in Israel or at University, and maybe by that time the property market will have cooled down a bit and we can look at downsizing into a 3-bedroom house.
Now, are you impressed how I went from "permanent resident" to "permanent residency"?
