Chinese buyers: We work hard for homes

Chinese people work and save hard to buy Auckland residential property, while Kiwis spend up large - that's the tenor of many responses to figures released by Labour. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Chinese people work and save hard to pour their money into Auckland residential property, while New Zealanders spend up large - that is the tenor of many responses to figures released by Labour on house sales.

Skykiwi, a platform for introducing New Zealand culture and lifestyle to the Chinese community, says it has 750,000 page views a day and translated the Weekend Herald's article on Chinese buying into Mandarin, hosting the article on its web site.

A Skykiwi spokesman said many people commented on Skykiwi's web site.

He also outlined how they defended the buying habits.

"People are saying they're working very hard and earning money and getting the reward and they have a different consumer behaviour to people who were born in New Zealand. It's because of Chinese tradition and cultural - they're quite happy to save the money," the spokesman said.

However, he also attributed differing attitudes to a cultural divide.

"It's the difference between east and western cultures. So they say 'ok, we're working very hard and we're very happy to put money into Auckland'," he said.

The spokesman said he could not ascertain if those Skykiwi respondents were based in China or New Zealand.

Skykiwi says 55.67 per cent of its users are based in Auckland, 37 per cent are aged 25-30 and it has 200,000 registered members.

Edward Xiang said his family had arrived in New Zealand 21 years ago and he was "upset and angry" about the publicity, which he said made the Chinese community here feel bad for the Labour Party.

Publicity had also been spread wider than the Herald because it appeared on Skykiwi, he noted.

"I am so upset and anger for your recent article of "Special investigation: Auckland house prices ", it makes our Chinese community feel so bad for labor "We do own rental properties. We have many friends similar, like us," he said.

Mark Li of Liaoning Province in China bought a Mt Albert house for $750,000 which he rents it out.

When asked about non-resident people from China buying houses her, Mr Li criticised New Zealanders' spending habits.

"Why do you spend $100 on beer while you can save it and spend it on your house one day?" Mr Li asked.

"There are so many other Kiwis who can afford to buy their houses. Why don't those people work harder to earn more, save more and then they can buy? To me, it's very fair. Excuse my language but only losers think it's not fair. My money didn't fall on me from the sky. I am not ashamed of being richer than those people who don't work hard and blame others for their own failures. This is what I value."