One quarter of all foreign sales of real estate in New Zealand are to ‘Chinese’ buyers. The reason I wrote the word Chinese as a parenthetical phrase is to most red blooded necked true New Zealanders (i.e. white) the classification of ‘Chinese’ would mean anyone of Asian ancestry.

So let’s look at those numbers.

Firstly, if 25% of real estate sales to foreign nationals are to the ‘Chinese’ then 75% are to other nationalities. They are mostly made up of Australian, English and American…but of course most of them are white so they don’t stand out as much at an auction, still where are our politicians rallying against those ethnicities and banning them thar white foreigners from buying?

Marry all this up against the idea that only 6% of all sales are to foreign nationals then we have a true picture. The ‘Chinese’ make up one quarter, or 6% of all sales. That means the red invasion of our real estate industry purchases a total of 1.5% of all the properties on the market.

Some are now saying that the ‘Chinese’ should only be able to buy newly built houses, well lets look at that. That is what they do in Australia and now Chinese (no parenthesise) buy 20% of the new housing market which is now causing the same headlines over there as people are ‘being shut out of the new housing market.’ It also means that the new house prices are spiking as there is a cashed up group of people fighting for them leaving many now unable to purchase either a new build or new-to-them house.

When I go to sell property I want as many people there who can purchase the property, I’d happily sell my property to an Asian, Australian, American, Angolan or anyone who had the right to buy it, and had the ability to do so.

I am sure you’ll see and hear people like Winston Peters on the telly and radio airwaves talking up the yellow peril this week, but please lets keep this conversation in the realm I like to call ‘reality’…which is ‘Chinese’ buyers make up 1.5% of all purchases and any kind of spin on that other than calling it ‘hardly any sales’, well if it ‘aint racist, it’s certainly xenophobic.