"Racist" facts in New Zealand

Real estate ads that highlighted statistics on the ethnicity of the neighborhoods they were selling in have been slammed as racist.

The adverts used statistics on ethnicity as a clear selling point, causing a backlash and leaving agents and vendors appalled.

One ad, for a $1.2million house in northern New Zealand, said: '71 per cent of the people in Kerikeri are European'.

Another ad for a property in Auckland was listed by Ray White Damerell Group and stated: '56 per cent of the people living in Kingsland are European'.

The real estate agent in charge of the Kerikeri listing, Irene Bremner, said she had 'no part of it' and added that it was 'appalling', Stuff reported.

Robyn Ellson, the real estate agent managing the Ray White Damerell Group, also said that she did not 'write or proof' the Kingsland property ad.

'On the whole I am pretty upset that my name has been associated with racism,' She tweeted. She also added that she called the New Zealand Herald's Homes OneRoof supplement regarding the matter.

Robyn Ellson, the real estate agent managing the Ray White Damerell Group, also said that she did not 'write or proof' the Kingsland property ad

OneRoof Editor Owen Vaughan responded to the backlash and told Stuff: 'The choice of statistic added to the property listings today, in isolation of all the other data about a neighbourhood, puts a focus on one element of a suburb only'.

'We apologise if this has caused any offence and have taken internal measures to ensure that the data selected to highlight a suburb is centred around other factors that home buyers consider when making purchasing decisions'.

SOURCE