0.96% of house transfers are to China tax residents

LINZ have released their latest quarterly data on house transfers. There are lots of caveats around the data, but what is absolutely clear is that Labour’s surname analysis about how up to 40% of Auckland homes are being sold to buyers from China is a failed racist smear.

Just 3% of transfers were to foreign tax resident buyers and only one third of those to buyers from China so of the 57,678 transfers, only 0.96% were to tax residents of China.

One can have a legitimate debate about whether restrictions on foreign buyers would impact house prices (it hasn’t had much if any impact in Australia) but the dog whistling by Labour with their surname analysis was designed to stir up xenophobia.