I normally similarly dislike the myopic nationalist tendencies but disagree with you here. When countries/people say "bring back jobs from China" I hate it. Chinese are humans and they aren't taking the jobs to screw you.. They are doing it to put food on the table.. How can you begrudge someone that? Particularly when the standard of living it so much lower on average there than the countries the complainers come from e.g. US, Australia. However, this is a rule preventing NON-RESIDENTS from purchasing. So long as you actually live in NZ a Chinese national could still buy property. I can understand why you'd prioritize residents being allowed to purchase over non-residents but of course this doesn't address wealthy residents buying their 20th investment property so it is at least a little distasteful in my opinion.