Mainland Chinese purchased $1.5 billion of residential real estate in New Zealand last year, according to a real estate website for Chinese investors.

Juwai.com said that was an increase of US$130 million (NZ$197.2m) on the year before, although there was a lack of reliable data in 2016.

Carrie Law, chief executive and director of Juwai.com said the $1.5b estimate was based on official data which showed mainland Chinese buyers made nearly 1600 purchases in New Zealand last year, not including corporations.

"CoreLogic reports that the average property price was about $622,000. That works out to nearly US$1 billion in total purchases," she said.

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While money controls in China weighed on Chinese investment in a number of countries last year, a desire to beat New Zealand's new partial foreign buyers ban buoyed the local market, although it brought forward a number of purchases that otherwise would have been counted this year.

ep_stock While Chinese investment was healthy in New Zealand, Australia saw investment fall.

"This year we expect investment in New Zealand residential property to decrease over all, although there may be a pick up specifically in the sector of new build projects," Law said.

The New Zealand figures did not include commercial property. "We do not have good data on Chinese investment in commercial property in New Zealand so have conservatively estimated it at zero," the website stated.

Meanwhile, across the Tasman Chinese investment dropped, falling 23 per cent to US$15.1b across both Australia and New Zealand.

Despite the ban, Law said New Zealand was still a desirable destination.

"This is an appealing country with an excellent quality of life and many commercial ties to China. It makes a natural destination for Chinese focused on property investment, immigration, or education."

As popular as New Zealand is, it is only the sixth most enquired about market for Chinese investors. They favour the United States the most, followed by Hong Kong and the UK.

Globally, total Chinese investment in commercial and residential property hit US$119.7 billion, up 16.1 per cent from the US$101.4b Juwai reported in 2016.