Police are investigating after a property advertisement claiming "no Indians, no Māori and no n****s" was posted on community Facebook groups in Auckland.
The ad was posted on an account claiming to be a property agent with Harveys Real Estate, who 1 NEWS has chosen not to name.
Today Harveys said the ad appears to have been made by a "bogus Facebook page for one of our employees".
"We do not condone such behaviour in our office or of our employees nor do we subscribe to any type or form of racism that was in the wording of the post," principal Darren Brady said.
As well as the initial racist ad, the false account doubled down when confronted in direct message.
Messages sent to 1 NEWS show the fake account defending the call as not being racist because "we don't want people who can't pay rent on time.. sick of them".
"We prefer white people as tenants," the false account said in the messages.
"We can assure you that this was not posted by [the property agent] or Harveys Real Estate," Mr Brady says.
"We sincerely apologise to anyone that may have been offended by this and we would appreciate everyone’s understanding as we try and get to the bottom of this."
Police confirmed to 1 NEWS an investigation is underway after a report from a member of the public relating to their social media account being hacked and offensive comments being posted on their profile.
"The person has subsequently reported receiving numerous online threats as a result of the comments made, which is causing them considerable distress," inspector Dave Glossop told 1 NEWS in a statement.
"Police are following up this matter with the individual concerned and we also want to warn the public that making online threats could be considered a criminal offence which may result in prosecution."
When contacted by 1 NEWS last night, the agent only said the case is in the hands of the police.
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