So will Labour apologise if it is revealed most ‘Chinese’ buyers are not foreigners?
The Herald reports:
Principal agent James Law said Labour’s leaked figures that showed 40 per cent of homes sold at auction in Auckland over a three-month period went to people with Asian surnames was “about right”.
Mr Law said four out of 10 of the 350 who bought real estate through the company last year were of Chinese ethnicity.
“But what we found from our sales record was less than 10 per cent of them are actually overseas-based investors,” he said. “Most of them are citizens or residents who have lived here for years.”
Mr Law said it was “tradition” for Chinese people to buy real estate, and many made it their “first priority”.
Many regarded real estate as a safe investment and one that they could either make a profit on or hand down to their children.
“This explains the high number of Chinese buyers and investors, because many find their security in owning houses,” Mr Law said.
“In the same way, data on dairy business sales will show a high number of ethnic Indian buyers.”
I made this point yesterday on social media. I’d say over half of dairies are owned by people with Indian surnames, yet only 3.9% of NZers are Indian. So does that mean that our dairies are being purchased by people from Mumbai? No – it means different ethnicities have different purchasing priorities.
Now let us assume that 40% of buyers do have Chinese surnames. Of course a proportion of those will be foreign buyers. But it is 1% or 10% or 80%? There is a huge difference.
If the data is just 10%, will Labour then apologise for slurring the 90% who are Kiwis, just Kiwis with a Chinese sounding surnname?