Across the country, the proportion of homes transferred to people who did not hold New Zealand citizenship or resident visas rose to 3.3% in the March quarter, from 2.9% in the December quarter.
In Queenstown-Lakes, 9.7% of all home transfers fell into this category and Auckland accounted for 7.3% - in inner city Waitemata they accounted for 19% of sales.
This is the maiden release by Statistics New Zealand on property transfer data.
Now Housing Minister, Phil Twyford caused a furore in mid-2015, when Labour grouped buyers into ethnicities, based on surnames using electoral roll data, and claimed almost 40% of Auckland buyers of were of Chinese descent.
Mr Twyford would not disclose the data's source, other than an unnamed real estate agency.
The Government is amending the Overseas Investment Act to rein in foreign speculators buying houses.
SNZ's property statistics manager, Melissa McKenzie, said nearly 33,000 homes were transferred in the March quarter and almost four in five of these were transferred to at least one New Zealand citizen.
Ms McKenzie said the other fifth were transferred to either corporate entities, resident-visa holders or overseas people.
She said the consultation on amendments to the Overseas Investment Act may have been a factor in recent increases in the proportion of transfers to non-New Zealand citizens and residents.
"The proposed changes could make it more challenging for overseas buyers to purchase residential land in New Zealand," Ms McKenzie said.
Real Estate Institute of New Zealand chief executive Bindi Norwell, who does not support any ban on foreign buyers, said the 3.3% SNZ data was similar to the institute's own findings of 3.8% overall, late last year.
"The figures from SNZ confirm that it's not worth going ahead with a blanket ban on foreign buyers across New Zealand," she said.
While 19% of sales in Waitemata were credited to foreign buyers, Ms Norwell said that was "roughly" 85 houses.
"Even if these 85 properties were sold to local buyers or investors, it is still unlikely to significantly impact the overall market."
Ms McKenzie said the number of overseas sellers also rose, from 1.3% during the past year to 1.5%.
The overall increase to 3.3% was driven by a decline in the total number of transfers across the country and a small rise in the number of transfers to overseas people.
She said property transfer statistics were mainly based on land transfer tax statements, which are completed for tax administration and housing policy purposes.
"[However] home transfers aren't just the sale and purchase of houses, although for simplicity we refer to the people involved in transfers as buyers and sellers," she said in a statement.
The data also included the transfer of a deceased family member's home, a marriage settlement, and administrative changes, Ms McKenzie said.
Transfers to overseas tax residents, including homes, land, and commercial property, hit 4.3% of all property transfers and involved at least one buyer with overseas tax residency, compared with 3% a year ago.
However, she noted the tax residency status for a further 41% of transfers was unknown, as many buyers and sellers were exempt from providing tax details if transferring their main home, Ms McKenzie said.
Citizenship and visa information was required for nearly all transfers, but excluding a small number of transfers such as Maori land transfers and Treaty of Waitangi settlements.
The Government's law change meant permanent residents and Australians would have to have resided in New Zealand for at least 183 days of the previous year in order to buy a property without screening.
