Chinese real estate company finds world's fastest-rising house prices in New Zealand

A leading Chinese real estate business has studied the world's fastest-rising house prices and found New Zealand topped the list of 45 countries.

Juwai, the biggest portal for Chinese searching here for properties in New Zealand, released its global house price index this month and said a new market had emerged as the world leader.

"New Zealand has overtaken Europe to take the lead as the strongest performer this quarter with a 10.43 per cent increase. In contrast, the Australian market underwent a gradual slowdown.

"New Zealand housing market accelerates - nationwide median housing prices surged as much as 10.43 per cent, a 5.19 per cent year-on-year increase from the year before," Juwai said.

Second to New Zealand was Romania with 10.10 per cent annual house price rises followed by Germany at 9.90 per cent, Istanbul in Turkey with 9.67 per cent, Canada 8.40 per cent, Malta 7.63 per cent, Iceland 6.34 per cent and Tokyo, Japan at 5.70 per cent.

Overall, Europe is where house prices are rising fastest, Juwai said.

"Europe, home to seven out of the ten strongest housing markets, remains dominant - 17 out of its 22 European housing markets charted price increases in Q2 2016," Juwai said.

Russia was at the bottom of the chart with house price declines of 12.46 per cent, and above that was Egypt at -11.2 per cent and Hong Kong at -10.73 per cent.

The Pacific Ocean and Oceania as a region showed strong growth but Juwai indicated that Australia is not following the path as New Zealand.

"Australian market downtrend continues - housing prices in its eight major cities rose and then slowed down, charting a property price growth of merely 3.0 per cent year-on-year, its lowest increase in nearly three years since Q3 2013," Juwai said.

Last month, Juwai reported how Chinese buyers were showing a growing appetite for New Zealand properties, with inquiries jumping by 50 per cent.

Gavin Norris, head of Australia and New Zealand for Juwai.com said Chinese people made 50 per cent more property buying inquiries in August than in the same month last year.

That contrasts with January when the number of Chinese buyers declined. At that time Juwai co-founder Simon Henry said New Zealand dropped to fifth from fourth most popular country in the world.

Labour wants to ban foreign buyers and Land Information New Zealand is now collecting data on the number of foreigners buying properties here, although those show extremely low percentages.

Norris said Auckland's popularity with Chinese looking for properties had increased lately.