Realty body set to check foreign buys

Property Institue chief executive Ashley Church. Photo / NZME.

The Property Institute hopes to find out how many foreigners are buying Auckland houses and what influence they are having on the market.

Ashley Church, the institute's chief executive, said he was unsure how it would go about this, but he hoped to be able to say more soon.

"The answer to that question will depend on the nature of any data we can get our hands on," Church said.

Last week, Church said Labour housing spokesman Phil Twyford's claims on the issue were reprehensible and an exercise in racism.

Twyford's data was "shonky and it has so many holes in it that it would be marked with an 'F' if it was submitted as a high school economics project", Church said.

Twyford said the statistical analysis was based on methods proven to be 95 per cent accurate.

Church said the institute supported the Government's plans "to create a foreign buyer register by requiring investors to have a New Zealand tax number".

"This will provide good, accurate, information and it will help us to determine whether we need to be taking steps to ban foreign investment in Kiwi homes - or direct it into the construction of new houses, as is the case in Australia."

But a spokesperson for Land Information Minister Louise Upston said the new database would not be a foreign buyer register and no decision had been taken about whether it would be released.

Because the information would be for tax purposes, it would not show where a buyer was domiciled, but where a purchasing entity was based, which could be in a tax haven.