Foreign ownership

Foreign ownership is a hot topic world wide and I cannot help but reflect on New Zealand’s challenges with housing as I look at the impact of foreign ownership here in Spain. As far back as the mid 80’s the British and Western Europe has been buying houses in Spain  and in the decade between 1996-2007 house prices rose 200%. Whole towns were created to meet this demand and some of the local villages, particularly near the coast are now 80% populated with British.(and I suspect out priced for many of the locals)

Where are the people?

At this time of the year however, most of these houses are empty but in a few months’ time these same ghost towns will be thriving with these property owners, who want to be feed, entertained, clothed, work done on their houses and cars fixed. They are at their holiday house, on holiday. It is the industry called tourism and the economy rocks.

This is a bitter sweet with foreign ownership but probably not too dissimilar with any “new industry” in a region.  Old values and cultures are lost as they give way to the “new” economic order.

While many of us wish to emotionally cling to the “old ways” the economic reality is that often they are not sustainable and how true for this in the Almeria region we have just come from. It was a desert that struggled to feed a few goats. At one point in history the industry was gold, and that ran out then piracy but this isn’t fashionable in the 21^st century and so the sad story continues. Consider the economic boom that the region got out of the building of these houses and the ongoing tourist market. The Spanish are milking the tourist like farmer Rue is milking his cows in Southland. Arguably both have had a negative social and environmental impact on the region but can we differentiate between these industries and accept one and not the other.

History tell us that the ebbs and flows of industry has shaped the culture of our country and it continues today. Think of whalers in the late 1800’s. The migration during the gold rush years, and South Pacific islander who came here during the 60’s to work in our factories. Even today we have the Philippiano’s coming to work in the diary, the Indians in our kiwifruit and the Tongan’s to play for the All blacks.

The migration of flora and fauna across the globe has been happening since time began and will continue long after you and I cease to exist. Get used to this fact and make the most of it. This is the difference between civilizations that survived and civilizations that died.