Relaxed visa rules has lent a huge boost to soaring Chinese buyer interest for New Zealand real estate, reports Stuff (5 March 2017). Ranked as the fifth most popular country for Chinese property investors on Juwai.com, Juwai Data revealed Chinese buyer searches for New Zealand property grew 127 percent y-o-y in October 2016, while Chinese enquiries increased by 80 percent. According to Juwai.com spokesman Dave Platter, "Real estate isn't always something that they can use for an investment visa but in terms of going overseas to diversify their capital, they trust real estate – not to the exclusion of other investments, but they do like to buy property overseas."