Auckland's property market pushes NZ up Asia-Pacific house price index

Auckland's property market has pushed New Zealand up the index. Photo / Supplied

Auckland's red-hot housing market has propelled New Zealand to almost top a new Asia-Pacific house price index.

Only the tightly constrained Hong Kong, with its "crazy" apartment prices, out-ranked New Zealand in terms of percentage changes for the last year and last quarter, the chart shows.

Global property consultancy Knight Frank released the data which showed New Zealand ranked ahead of Malaysia and Australia in terms of house price growth.

House prices grew in six of the 11 countries being measured during the first quarter of this year, Knight Frank said.

The data appeared in Knight Frank's Asia-Pacific Residential Review for June.

In terms of outlook, New Zealand was grouped with Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand as a country where monetary easing is predicted to be an influence on house prices.

That is a reference to interest rate cuts by central banks in those countries.

Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Sydney and Beijing were cited for land supply issues causing house price changes. New Zealand does not feature on that list.

Matthew Goodson, the Auckland-based managing director of Salt Funds Management which has $1.5 billion of funds under management, this month warned about the potential consequences of the Auckland housing bubble.

"The evidence is compelling that the aftermath of a credit-financed housing bust is dire.

"Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them," Goodson wrote in a Herald opinion piece published last week.

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