It's Official: New Zealand House Prices Have Blown Up Faster Than Anywhere in the World

We already knew that the situation was pretty bad, but here's some confirmation that the explosion of housing prices in New Zealand is the highest in the world. According to a global ranking by Knight Frank, property costs across the Tasman have experienced an 11 percent jump in just one year.

Technically, New Zealand's price growth came second to Turkey—which experienced almost 14 percent growth. But the index tracks nominal price growth, as opposed to real price growth, which takes into account inflation.

"If we consider real price growth, where inflation is stripped out, New Zealand finds itself in first place with 11 percent annual growth whilst Turkey—with inflation in excess of seven percent—is pushed down into 13th position," the report reads. Coming in third place is Canada, with growth at around 10 percent.

The International Monetary Fund also released a similarly frightening report earlier this month, where New Zealand topped an index of house price to income ratio—beating out 30 of the world's richest nations. The median income from wages and salaries across all jobs in New Zealand is about $45,000 a year.

So how expensive is a house in New Zealand? Well, if you're looking to buy in Auckland, the largest city in the country, the average home there costs around one million dollars— or $1,013,632, to be precise. That's about the same as a pad in London.

According to QV, house values in New Zealand rose by more than six percent over the past three months alone, and are now almost 50 percent higher than they were back in 2007. The average value of a home country-wide is $612, 537—pushed up no doubt by those figures in Auckland, where prices have increased almost 16 percent over the past year.

The New Zealand Government has been taking steps to address the housing crisis, such as placing loan restrictions on investors who are buying up the market. You now need a 40 percent deposit to buy a home in Auckland if you're investor. But if you intend to occupy the property, it's 20 percent.

National Spokesperson for QV, Andrea Rush, said that the effects of this measure have been fairly immediate.

"There was a strong surge of activity in June and July however it now appears the new LVR restrictions for investors adopted by banks towards the end of July have started to have an impact in the housing markets in Auckland, Tauranga and Hamilton during August," she said in a statement that accompanied the new property data.

"In recent weeks there has been a drop off in market valuation requests, auction clearance rates, open home attendees and loan application rates in these centres."

Still, a million dollars is an unobtainable number for first home buyers, and the new data is a little crushing if you were planning to take advantage of the trans-Tasman agreement and start a new life as a Kiwi. Although from the sounds of things, Australians living in New Zealand are generally having a great time.

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