Yet another realty parasite today, from Yahoo:
Ray White says marketing New Zealand and Australian properties to Chinese buyers is “nothing new” and it is up to the government to put a stop to it, not the real estate industry.
The comments come after the company faced backlash after it tried to assure Kiwis that a new partnership with China’s largest real estate agency isn’t designed to sell off more New Zealand homes to foreign buyers.
The company said the recent Australian-led partnership with Chinese agency Lianjia, also known as Homelink, was established “in response to the increasing globalisation of the real estate industry”.
The agreement will give clients of Ray White New Zealand and Australia the option to co-list their properties for sale with Lianjia, which has more than 6000 branches in over 25 cities in China and has an audience of around 260 million Chinese buyers.
Ray White told Yahoo New Zealand it was not a blanket marketing strategy, and the agency would not be pushing every listing on to the Lianjia’s website in a bid to flog New Zealand and Australian properties off to Chinese buyers.
“This is not a blanket situation where every property listed with Ray White will be actively listed on Homelink – to the contrary, this is simply a service that’s available to vendors who seek it.
“There’s been variations on this available for quite some time, it’s nothing new,” Dan White, the Director of Ray White Group, told Yahoo New Zealand.
He said sellers had been asking for the option, and they would simply approach other real estate agencies if Ray White did not come to the party.
“The globalisation of the real estate industry is undeniable. Although there are a range of opinions as to the benefits and risks that this brings to our citizens, our duty to clients requires us to remain relevant in this changing market.”
Mr White told Yahoo New Zealand that marketing properties in China was “not groundbreaking”, adding that it was a broad industry practice.
It was not up to Ray White to make a “moral decision” about the issues of housing affordability and foreign property ownership, Mr White said, as “ultimately this matter lies outside the jurisdiction of the real estate industry”.
“As such any concerns should be addressed to the relevant legislative bodies.”
Actually, realty parasites are under some restraint in NZ. From 1 October last year, new rules came into effect:
- requiring non-residents and New Zealanders buying and selling any property other than their main home to provide a New Zealand IRD [tax file] number;
- requiring non-residents to have a New Zealand bank account to get a New Zealand IRD number; and
- introducing a new “bright line” test to tax gains from residential property sold within two years of purchase, unless it’s the seller’s main home, inherited or transferred in a relationship property settlement.
In Australia, third parties are not allowed to “knowingly assist” foreign buyers to break the law, with penalties of $45,000 individually or $225,000 for a company on offer:
A boycott is a great idea. Prosecuting real estate agents for “knowingly assisting” to break Australia’s foreign buyer rules is even better.
