A New Zealand-based website marketing New Zealand homes to the Chinese is reaching around 22 million people every year.
New Zealand is becoming a more popular destination for the Chinese, and the website director says no capital gains tax is one of the main reasons.
Opposition political parties say it's about time the Government put some policies in place.
More than 90 percent of houses on the market in New Zealand are also being directly marketed to Chinese buyers through a website called HouGarden.com. Around 60 percent of the website traffic is based in China and it has around 22 million views every year.
Director Sam Yin says his website is a way for real estate agents to reach those offshore buyers.
"Our role is to help them achieve and access more in the Chinese market."
He says Chinese buyers are increasingly looking here because we have no capital gains tax and there are no policies restricting them from buying up land.
"A lot of countries like Australia, Canada and Amercia already have the policy to limit overseas buyers," says Mr Yin. "I don't think New Zealand has anything yet, but it will happen."
New Zealand First Party leader Winston Peters says something needs to happen now.
"We need a land and house ownership register so we know who's buying what, where and when, who owns what in this country," says Mr Peters.
The Greens agree and say New Zealand is seen as a weak link in the global housing market.
"New Zealand's a soft touch – no capital gains tax, no constraints on foreign buyers of housing like most other markets, so of course a lot of people are coming here to buy housing," says Green Party co-leader Russel Norman. "Why wouldn't you?"
But Mr Yin says it's good for our economy.
"I do think New Zealand needs to have a lot of funding from overseas in order to make this country stronger and also make progress on the economy," he says.
Shi Li bought his home through HouGarden.com this year and says it's the best and biggest website for New Zealand real estate in China.
"All of my friends know this website," he says. "Two of my friends have bought the houses through HouGarden."
HouGarden.com has billboards around Auckland City and has plans to put up more throughout New Zealand for more traffic to the website.
The Labour Party says we can't blame real estate agents for wanting to market homes overseas, but it's the Government who need to take it seriously if we want house prices to stop rising.
3 News
source: newshub archive
