Is the New Zealand Real Estate Bubble the Biggest of Them All?
January 9th, 2007I’m shocked by the number of “For Sale” signs that have disappeared lately. For months, it seemed like every other property was for sale out here in the middle of nowhere. Not now. “Lifestyle blocks” are being snapped up, and prices continue to rise. It’s tough to imagine that flippers would be buying properties around here. No way, not this late in the game. And, again, not here. Yuppies looking for lattes have been known to disappear into the bush, never to be seen again. 😉
It’s something else, and I’m not sure what. It might be people fleeing Auckland. It might be Poms (the Kiwi/Aussie term for British people) fleeing their doomed country, pockets flush with sterling. It might be “smart money” looking to park their NZ dollars in real assets before any “disorderly transitions” occur in the fiat FOREX markets…
I really don’t know.
Via: TVNZ:
The Real Estate Institute is warning people not to expect houses to get cheaper in the near future.
Latest figures show the median house price in New Zealand is more than seven times the average salary – a 72% increase on five years ago and higher than in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.
Institute president Murray Cleland says experts have been saying the bottom is going to fall out of the market for quite some time but out in the field there is no sign of the market slowing.
