Chinese property experts meeting in Auckland

The $200m Park Hyatt, rising in Auckland, one of the biggest projects by Chinese working in Auckland.

More than 200 people have registered for the biggest event for Chinese working in the Auckland property sector - the New Zealand Chinese Building Industry Association's annual conference in Auckland tomorrow.

Frank Xu, president of the organisation, said more than 200 were registered for workshops, more than 250 for a summit and more than 350 people would attend the dinner.

He also listed big projects by Chinese developers and builders working in Auckland as featuring in a video to be screened tomorrow afternoon.

The $200 million Park Hyatt under construction on Halsey St in the Wynyard Quarter, new housing estates at Gulf Harbour, SugarTree apartments at 25 Union St in the CBD, Apollo Square, the terraced and apartment Springpark residential estate at Mt Wellington, Rose Gardens Apartments at Albany, the St James apartment project on Queen St beside the historic theatre, Custom St Highrise, Wyndham Hotel, Zheng Chang Albany and Changda Orewa will be featured on the video, Xu said.

Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith, Labour housing spokesman Phil Twyford and former Reserve Bank chief Don Brash also appear as invited guests on the programme.

Property development representatives Sean Pan and Jia Ming are also listed and Xu said the conference was significant.

"This will be a biggest gathering this year of Chinese property and building industry and their Kiwi counterparts," he said.

Workshop topics are the property market, property finance, design consultants, residential construction and commercial construction.

Presenters include Raymond Huo, a partner with lawyers Shieff Angland and Zhan Feng, a director of Woodhams Meikle Zhan Architects.

Xu said topics addressd at the conference included Auckland house prices compared with international cities and the main causes of the city's housing shortage. Potential measures to ease that shortage and an overview of the New Zealand construction market will address issues of cost, resource and risk.

How to minimise the impact of the city's construction market resource shortage will examine a short supply of materials and skills.

A statement on the event told more.

"With the unprecedented Auckland housing problem reaching crisis level, Government departments, real estate investors, developers, and construction companies have adopted various means to intervene and hopefully solve this issue of soaring house prices, housing shortages, skill shortages and under-funded infrastructure.