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The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) and the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) announced they had developed a stratified housing price measure to provide a “timely” reading of house price inflation in New Zealand that avoided being skewed by sales in particular sectors. (Update 1 includes REINZ comments.)

The new measure uses monthly data supplied by the REINZ, and produces results close to QV’s quarterly index, but in a quicker time-frame, the RBNZ said. There will be indexes for Auckland, Wellington and the rest of the North Island, Christchurch and the rest of the South Island. There will also be a REINZ Monthly Residential Section Price Index.

The RBNZ has released a discussion paper, titled ‘Developing stratified housing price measures for New Zealand‘, which says the new “measure produces estimates of housing price inflation that accord closely with the accurate but less timely figures obtained from the QV Quarterly House Price Index.”

The RBNZ worked with the REINZ to come up with the stratification measure which the REINZ will release each month. The first release will be on August 14.

“(T)he current monthly REINZ median housing price is timely, but changes in the mix of properties sold each month can make it difficult to identify residential property price trends,” RBNZ Assistant Governor John McDermott said.

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The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has published a research paper estimating that the potential economic impact from the Swine Flu would be less than 0.6% of GDP, which is significantly less than the 1-2% hit forecast by Westpac last month.

Here is the full release below the jump.

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