COMMENT: If I were to ask you to list the names of the greatest explorers in history, I’d imagine that your list would include such illustrious names as Captain James Cook, Marco Polo, and Christopher Columbus. If your general knowledge is a little broader it might also include the great Polynesian explorer Kupe who features extensively in oral traditions throughout the South Pacific, Amerigo Vespucci, Ferdinand Magellan, the intrepid Scandinavian explorer Leif Ericson, and Chinese explorer Xuanzang.
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But as impressive as the exploits of these men were, none of them came close to the extraordinary breadth of travel undertaken by your average 21st century traveller. Typically, the travel of the great explorers was either relatively localised to the part of the planet in which they lived - or aimed at specific locations on the other side of the world with little deviation off that course. By comparison, there’s a very good chance that the travel that you (or your children, if you’re a little older) have already embarked on exceeds the wildest dreams of any of the intrepid pioneers included in the list above.
In fact the only explorer who even comes close to the breadth of travel of your average Kiwi (Covid notwithstanding) is an almost unheard of Moroccan explorer named Ibn Battuta, who lived between 1304 and 1377 and who travelled a staggering 140,000km within the Muslim world during his lifetime and visited the equivalent of over 40 modern day countries.
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Yet, despite the much larger frame of reference from which Kiwis draw, most of us are still extraordinarily pleased to get home at the end of our journey and many of us still rate this little piece of paradise in the south west Pacific as the greatest country on Earth. Indeed, the very act of travelling provides us with a frame of reference against which to appreciate just how good we have it here in Aotearoa.
And frankly, who can blame us? The stunning beauty, benign physical attributes and unparalleled lifestyle offered by these blessed isles are the envy of those who visit our shores – and our unique cultural blend of ‘number 8 wire can do’ and protestant humility has produced giants of the stature of Kate Sheppard, Ernest Rutherford, Jean Batten, William Pickering, Richard Pearse and Edmund Hillary, who have all influenced and shaped the world in ways which immeasurably exceed our physical boundaries.
Ashley Church: “You can have confidence that the New Zealand property market – like the country itself – is one of the best in the world.” Photo / Ted Baghurst
Small wonder that the London-based Economist magazine has recognised these advantages by ranking Auckland and Wellington as the world’s first and fourth most liveable cities.
But while Auckland’s ranking comes as no surprise to me, it has already attracted the kind of predictable and sneering scorn that we’ve come to expect from an element of our own society which seems to luxuriate in finding all manner of things to criticise about New Zealand and which immediately tries to shut down anything which casts us in a good light in a kind of “turkeys voting for an early Christmas” orgy of self-flagellation.
Frankly, it’s pathetic, and it’s the same small-minded negativity which infects our property market and refuses to learn the lessons of recent history, choosing, instead, to find the dark cloud in every silver lining.
I’ve written, extensively, on why New Zealanders can feel good about the way in which our housing market operates. If you ever wanted to see a model for a working property market in action you need look no further than ours. Ignore the naysayers and those trying to talk up the prospect of a market crash. Unlike most other nations which have dramatic boom and bust housing cycles where massive value can be wiped out overnight, the New Zealand housing market is stable, trustworthy and has self-moderated supply based on demand very effectively for over 40 years. At the same time, it has delivered consistent capital growth to Kiwis and has made us the fifth wealthiest nation on earth – despite the fact that our average wages are lower than comparable countries.
Yes, there are issues with equity of access to the market and it is hard for first home buyers in our bigger cities to get into it, but these barriers are almost all artificial in that they’re the result of Government and Reserve Bank policy rather than the behaviour of the market itself.
You can have confidence that the New Zealand property market – like the country itself – is one of the best in the world.
- Ashley Church is a property commentator for OneRoof.co.nz. Email him at ashley@nzemail.com
