Nz property market ‘tamed’

Record-high interest rates are cooling demand for property in New Zealand….

The country’s home-building approvals fell in November and home prices rose the least in nine months. Permits granted to build new houses and apartments slipped 0.1 percent from October, the third straight decline, Statistics New Zealand said in Wellington today. House prices rose 10 percent in December from a year earlier, according to Quotable Value New Zealand Ltd., a government valuation agency.

Today's reports suggest the cooling real-estate market will further slow an economy that expanded at the weakest pace in a year in the third quarter. Easing domestic demand may help curb inflation pressures that prompted Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Alan Bollard to raise borrowing costs four times last year, taking his benchmark to a record 8.25 percent.

Khoon Goh, an economist at ANZ National Bank Ltd. in Wellington commented: “The Reserve Bank has well and truly tamed the housing market with its rate hikes. The latest data confirms that the housing market has turned and the higher prices are starting to ease.''