House market in top 10 with 1.3pc price fall

New Zealand has ranked in the top 10 housing markets in the world, but prices have still dropped.

It had one of the smallest price falls lately and is ranked alongside Europe for toughing out the slump.

Real estate consultancy Knight Frank has released its international house price index which compared house price changes in the second quarter of last year with the same period this year.

That showed New Zealand was ninth least affected out of 32 countries.

"It now appears that house prices are starting to stabilise across the world," said Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank.

BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander said the list of pessimists expecting house prices to fall was shrinking.

Even one of the most powerful arms of the state turned out to be wrong, he noticed. And it has said so.

To read the full NZ Herald story click here

Posted: 14 Sep 2009

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