Accountancy company KPMG has published a report showing that the US has become the largest buyer of dairy farms in New Zealand, even though the perception was that the Hong Kong and Chinese buyers were buying up most of the dairy farms for sale.

The KPMG analysis of the land transactions approved by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) found that half of the acres and over a quarter of the value of the land sold to foreign investors between January 2013 and December 2014 was sold to US purchasers.

Despite the widespread perception that the Chinese are buying most of the dairy farms in New Zealand, the report shows the limited land market there has a broad base of investors.

China’s Shanghai Pengxin’s purchase of Synlait farms accounted for only one of the 24 transactions by overseas investors during the period, but it had also purchased the 16 Crafer farms with 7,885ha for $200m in 2012.

The report had indicated that in the 57 transactions for the period, Chinese purchasers came second to the US with 11.9% of the value, followed by 5.9% for Sweden. There was one Irish purchaser of 505 acres, as well as eight from the UK.

The report also noted that some transactions were considered confidential by the OIO, and therefore complete information was not available.