Chinese property investors are rapidly disappearing from the auction room, the boss of Auckland's biggest real estate agency says.
Peter Thompson, of Barfoot & Thompson, blames financial instability in China for the dip in those bidding - partly fuelling the market slowdown.
"There are a lot less Chinese in the auction room at the moment and at the open homes," he said. "The market has changed and some of that is the Chinese buyers. There are more requirements in getting money out of China now and that is having an impact."
It comes months after leaked data released by the Labour Party, and published in the Herald, showed 39.5 per cent of Auckland house sales between February and April were to people with Chinese surnames, despite people of Chinese ethnicity making up just nine per cent of the population.
Labour said the data suggested non-resident Chinese buyers were targeting the Auckland housing market, driving up house prices. Thompson did not believe the drop off was related to the Labour-sparked row over foreign ownership and predicted Chinese investors would return to the market within the next couple of months.