Chinese buyers turn away from NZ house hunting

Real estate signs on Remuera's Victoria Avenue. Househunters based in China are showing less interest in New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images

Chinese-based house hunters are turning away from New Zealand according to one online property business, and Government and Reserve Bank deterrents are being cited as the reason.

Sam Yin, founder and chief executive of Auckland-based real estate portal Hougarden which means backyard in Mandarin, revealed a big drop in interest.

"The total number of sessions on HouGarden.com from viewers based in China slipped from 310,475 to 240,063 - a drop of around 22.58 per cent," he said.

New rules for taxing capital gains? Tightening in the Chinese economy? Whatever the reason, it looks as if interest from Chinese-based buyers has waned in the third quarter of 2015," Yin said.

However viewers based in China remain drawn to major centres.

Auckland continues to attract the lion's share of page views, and its total grew by 25.59 per cent.

Regional centres have shown enormous growth, with Hamilton up 71.88 per cent, Wellington City up 47.06 per cent and Christchurch up 45.09 per cent. But the star performer was Queenstown, which saw its share of page views grow by 126.62 per cent over the third quarter.