The Chinese property site Hougarden.com placed an advertisement on a social networking site, asking: "How many Dao Mao are there in your neighbourhood?"

A high-profile Chinese property website has apologised for its use of an arguably offensive term for Maori and Pacific Islanders.

Hougarden.com, a Chinese-language site, published an article which detailed the number of people from different ethnic groups living in each Auckland suburb.

The site then advertised the piece on WeChat, a popular Chinese social network, saying: 'How many Dao Mao are there in your neighbourhood?'

123RF Hougarden.com promotes itself as the number one property portal for Chinese speakers in New Zealand.

The term 'Dao Mao' is understood to be disrespectful of Maori and Pacific Islanders.

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A translation of the article also appears to draw a link between property prices and the ethnic makeup of suburbs.

David Unwin/Fairfax NZ. Professor Paul Spoonley said he would "condemn" an ad that tried to appeal to the racial prejudices of buyers.

"Because of some widely-known reasons, ethnic ratio plays an important part in housing prices," an excerpt reads.

The writer of the article, Roy Liu, said that providing information on the ethnic makeup of suburbs was not racist.

It was up to individuals as to what they did with the information, he said.

"Some people from Asia, especially from China, they prefer to live with the same nation and same culture."

However, Hougarden.com later released a statement apologising for the use of the term 'Dao Mao' in its advertisement.

It was a "poor choice of words", the statement said.

"It was inappropriate terminology and should not have been used."

Steps had been taken to ensure the term would not be used in future, the statement said.

Professor Paul Spoonley, a sociologist who studies ethnic relations, said the listing of suburbs by ethnicity wasn't a cause for concern in and of itself.

"If however you're trying to appeal to the prejudices and stereotypes of buyers then we should debate that and I would certainly condemn that."

Spoonley said the issue was an interesting one because most New Zealanders would be unable to understand what was really being said.

"There's a sort of hidden world that we're not party to," he said.

"I do think it's important that members of that linguistic community call out anybody who is discriminatory."

A Chinese speaker contacted by Stuff said provocative titles and phrases were often used to encourage clicks on WeChat and the article itself was largely neutral in tone.

Hougarden.com promotes itself as the number one property portal for Chinese speakers in New Zealand.