New Zealand is officially home to the most liveable cities in the world as property values in the Land of the Long White Cloud rise 20.5 per cent since the start of the pandemic.
Brisbane and Perth also ranked in The Economist top 10 list while Melbourne just managed to hold on to a spot … and Sydney fell off.
The pandemic was a major factor in the global liveability ranking with restrictions drastically impacting people’s lives.
Usual frontrunner Melbourne fell back to 16th position in the past six months before sliding in at eighth in the final 2021 global liveability list.
Sydney fell to 11th position from third place in 2019, making way for the New Zealand entrants.
Auckland placed first of 140 cities for stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.
New Zealand house prices soar
However, the list does not take affordability into account, with house prices in both Australia and New Zealand reaching all time highs.
The average house price in Auckland is $1,219,183, up 16.5 per cent in a year.
Wellington is up 27.2 per cent to $1,001,732, the most rapid growth of all major Kiwi cities, according to Corelogic data for May.
This compares to Australia’s house prices, which jumped 14.3 per cent in a year on average.
In Japan, property prices are slowly on the rise after a blip during the start of the pandemic.
Switzerland is the exception to the rule with house prices returning to 2018 levels thanks to government-imposed cooling measures.
Top 10 most liveable cities