Chinese buyers' interest in New Zealand properties rose dramatically last month and Auckland is by far the most popular city.
Sam Yin, chief executive of real estate portal Hougarden.com, said traffic was up 22 per cent last month, following a 13.7 per cent increase in February.
New Zealand remained extremely popular with Chinese property browsers who are mainly from Beijing and mostly browsing Auckland residential properties, the data showed.
Auckland was most popular with China-based searchers, followed by Christchurch, Hamilton, Wellington, Tauranga, Dunedin, Lower Hutt, Palmerston North, Queenstown and Rotorua, the Hougarden analysis showed.
The largest number of searchers live in Beijing, followed by Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Tianjin.
Hougarden reported 3.1 million page views last month, up 13.84 per cent between February and March, 106,908 unique visitors last month (up 22.33 per cent) and 227,981 total visits (up 19.62 per cent).
The majority, or 75.24 per cent of the Chinese, are searching under the residential category, followed by rental (10.64 per cent ), rural (7.96 per cent), business for sale (2.74 per cent) and commercial (3.42 per cent).
Yin said the big rise in interest from China was due to several factors.
"March is the first full month after the summer break with students returning to tertiary education and local Chinese people coming home after visiting family in China over Chinese New Year," he said.
Affluent Chinese having an enjoyable holiday in New Zealand could also be driving the numbers, Yin said.
"The large increase in unique users may also include relative newbies making their first tentative exploration of New Zealand real estate. ... There is no doubt that the overall increase in visits and page views is very significant news for real estate professionals and those looking to sell, Yin said.
Most, 21.10 per cent, of searchers looked for properties in the $400,000 to $600,000 category followed by $600,000 to $800,000, then $800,000 to $1 million.
