26 May 2009 - Strong growth in international traffic to New Zealand's leading property listing site, Realestate.co.nz, suggests the global economic crisis is fuelling overseas interest in the local property market.

In the year to April, Realestate.co.nz recorded a 14% spike in the number of homes-for-sale search sessions initiated by site visitors living outside New Zealand and a 17% increase in similar offshore-based searches for kiwi rental properties.

Realestate.co.nz's CEO, Alistair Helm, says the statistics suggest worldwide fallout from the international credit crisis is encouraging an unprecedented number of people to think about migrating in order to escape the economic troubles of their home countries. For many New Zealand is definitely on the radar as a potential destination, hence the growing interest in our property market.

``Our biggest increase in international rental search traffic has come from Spain, which is up 248% over the year, followed by Ireland (up 172%), the Russian Federation (132%) and Singapore (up 130%),'' Mr Helm says.

``When it comes to overseas browsers investigating homes for sale, traffic from Spain is up 226%, followed by China, up 211%, the Russian Federation (up 157%) and Taiwan (up129%).''

``One thing these geographies have in common is they have all been particularly impacted by the recent international economic turmoil, which can only encourage people to look for better opportunities overseas.''

``Spain's unemployment rate doubled over the 12 months to March, hitting an all-time high of 17.4%. Ireland's once-booming economy has crashed, the slump in oil prices has hit Russia particularly hard and Singapore's economy shrank 19.7% in the first quarter of 2009. China and Taiwan have also been hit hard by the slow-down in global economic activity.''

Mr Helm says the recent influx of international web visitors to the Realestate.co.nz portal, indicated that New Zealand was at least on the shortlist of destinations for many international job seekers.

Of the top 20 overseas geographies providing property search traffic to Realestate.co.nz, only two markets - Australia and South Africa - have recorded a drop in traffic over the past year. Rental property search traffic from Australia was down 11% in the year to April, while rental searches originating from South Africa were down 55%.

When it came to homes-to-buy searches, Australian traffic was down 9% and South African traffic was down 49%.

Realestate.co.nz Site Visitor Statistics, April 2009:

Top 10 Countries: International Property Searching - Homes for Sale (Total visitor sessions for this category: 134,604) Country Percentage change from April 2008 1. Spain +226% 2. China +211% 3. Russian Federation +157% 4. Taiwan +129% 5. United Arab Emirates +123% 6. Singapore +120% 7. India +119% 8. France +94% 9. Malaysia +93% 10. Japan +78% Top 10 Countries: International Property Searching - Rental Property (Total visitor sessions for this category: 25,902) Country Percentage change from April 2008 1. Spain +248% 2. Ireland +172% 3. Russian Federation +132% 4. Singapore +130% 5. Netherlands +116% 6. United Arab Emirates +113% 7. India +105% 8. United States +103% 9. France +102% 10. Canada +82%

For the complete data visit www.realestate.co.nz/blog