New Zealand’s private schools are knocking their British counterparts off the league table for English-speaking education, international research suggests. The findings could give New Zealand an edge over Britain among wealthy Asians seeking the best education for their children - particularly since New Zealand’s top schools are generally cheaper, London’s Financial Times newspaper reports.

Among English-speaking countries, New Zealand tops the table of private schools in maths and in science. British private schools beat their New Zealand counterparts only in reading.

The findings, included in the Pisa 2006 results published this month, come at a time when British private schools - which have historically dominated the market for international high school students - are finding it harder to attract large numbers of foreign pupils.

Rising teacher pay has increased costs at British schools and the strong pound has also made the schools more expensive for families who are based overseas.

This year’s annual fees at Eton College were £26,490. This compares with £12,000 to £15,500 for overseas students at King’s College in Auckland.

Lynda Reid, principal of St Cuthbert’s College, an Auckland girls’ school, said: “New Zealand independent schools represent the best value on the planet.”

She said there was also “a perception” among parents that New Zealand was safer “to send your 14 or 15-year-old daughter to than the UK or the US”.

United States private schools ranked below both British and New Zealand schools.

Expatriates are so happy in their new lives that nine out of ten would recommend a move abroad to friends and family, it has been reported.

As many as three in every four said that their quality of life had got better since making the move, recent research by BUPA suggested.

Meanwhile 60 per cent of the 1,787 people asked said that they liked the weather better in their new country and 58 per cent said they were more open-minded having made the move.

Tim Slee, head of European sales at BUPA International, said: “Moving abroad is a huge life-changing challenge and while our survey shows it’s a very successful move for most people, careful planning is essential.”

Many people find they miss the things most familiar to them at home, whether that be friends and family, or even favourite foods that are not available abroad.

Finding a rental property overseas could give those looking to move permanently a feel for the area before they make a final decision.

Nevada returned to the top as the USA’s fastest-growing state, with a population increase of 2.9 percent between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2007, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Arizona, fastest-growing between 2005 and 2006, slipped to second place.

Meanwhile, Louisiana began to rebound from its post-Hurricane Katrina population loss, gaining nearly 50,000 people from July 1, 2006, to July 1, 2007, for a total population of 4.3 million. The state lost 250,000 residents during the previous one-year period. Texas gained more people than any other state: Its 2006-2007 increase of almost 500,000 was ahead of runner-up California, which added slightly more than 300,000.

California remains the most populous state with about 37 million people.

Details from Statistics Canada have revealed that more than one million immigrants arrived in Canada in the last five years, settling in a country that is now home to 150 languages and people from more than 200 countries.

The 2006 Census enumerated 6,186,950 foreign-born people in Canada. They accounted for virtually one in five (19.8%) of the total population, the highest proportion in 75 years.

Between 2001 and 2006, Canada’s foreign-born population increased by 13.6%. This was four times higher than the growth rate of 3.3% for the Canadian-born population during the same period.

The census estimated that 1,110,000 immigrants came to Canada between January 1, 2001 and May 16, 2006. These newcomers made up 17.9% of the total foreign-born population, or 3.6% of Canada’s total population of 31.2 million.

Recent immigrants born in Asia (including the Middle East) made up the largest proportion (58.3%) of newcomers to Canada.

Newcomers born in Europe made up the second largest group (16.1%) of recent immigrants. Europe used to be the main source region of immigrants. In 1971, they accounted for 61.6% of newcomers to Canada.

In addition, an estimated 10.8% of recent immigrants were born in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Another 10.6% of newcomers to Canada in 2006 were born in Africa.

A majority (70.2%) of the foreign-born population in 2006 reported a mother tongue other than English or French. Among the foreign-born who had a non-English, non-French mother tongue, the largest proportion reported Chinese languages (18.6%), followed by Italian (6.6%), Punjabi (5.9%), Spanish (5.8%), German (5.4%), Tagalog (4.8%) and Arabic (4.7%).

The Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver areas were home to 68.9% of the recent immigrants in 2006. In contrast, slightly more than one-quarter (27.1%) of Canada’s total population lived in these three areas.

Within Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, newcomers tended to live in the central municipalities, but an increasing share of newcomers chose the surrounding municipalities.

In the Toronto, 59.8% of its newcomers resided in the city of Toronto. Its surrounding municipalities, such as Mississauga, Brampton and Vaughan, had an increased share of newcomers; 28.8% of recent immigrants in 2006 lived in these surrounding municipalities, up from 21.4% in 2001.

In the Montreal, a majority of newcomers (76.3%) lived in the city of Montreal. Its surrounding municipalities, such as Laval, Longueuil, Brossard, Dollard-des-Ormeaux and Côte-Saint-Luc, saw an increased share of new immigrants; 15.0% of newcomers in 2006 lived in these surrounding municipalities.

In the Vancouver, nearly three-quarters (74.7%) of recent immigrants lived in just four municipalities: the cities of Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby and Surrey.

The majority (85.1%) of the foreign-born who were eligible for Canadian citizenship in 2006 had become naturalised. The census enumerated 863,100 individuals, or 2.8% of the population, who reported a Canadian citizenship in addition to at least one other citizenship. Four out of every five of these individuals were foreign-born.

Millions of Britons will be spending Christmas and New Year soaking up the sun or hurtling down ski slopes, new research has indicated. Figures from the Association of British Travel Insurers (ABTA) have shown that 3.5 million will be heading for the airport or Channel Tunnel over the period between December 21st and January 2nd.

The most popular warm weather destinations are the Canary Islands, Goa and Egypt, while ABTA has said sales are going well for Alpine ski destinations, where good early season snowfall is in contrast to last year’s very mild conditions.

Online travel agents Ebookers.com are also seeing a surge in custom from those wanting to swap the British winter for foreign climes.

In addition to 15 per cent of the 8,000 respondents to the firm’s survey stated that they always go away at Christmas, while 23 per cent of those spending this time overseas said they were doing so for the first time.

The recent annual Spanish immigration study presented by the Etnia publishing group revealed that there are now 4.48 million foreign residents in Spain, representing almost 10 percent of the 41.12 million population. Of these foreign residents, nearly 17% (761,000 ) are British nationals the majority of whom are based in the traditional coastal resorts of the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca.

It is not hard to see why, 40 years on, Spain remains an attractive destination for Britons looking to relocate; the combination of a sunny climate, low cost of living, accessibility and a stable economy drives its appeal. However with the latest data from the Kyero Spanish House Price Index revealing that average property prices in the most popular provinces of Malaga and Alicante have reached €307,000 (£221,040) and €250,000 (£180,000) respectively, can affordable Spanish coastal living still be found?

The average property price in Spain according to Kyero.com, remains at €248,000 and when considering the 22 most sought after provinces by potential property purchasers in Spain, 64% display average property prices below the national average.

Average property prices in coastal provinces including Castellon (€245,000), Valencia (€230,000) and Tarragona (€229,000) in the east, Murcia (€215,000), Almeria (€199,000) and Granada (€170,000) in the south east and Asturias (€162,000) in the north demonstrate that living on the Spanish coast need not ‘costa’ fortune.

As Martin Dell, MD of Kyero.com, comments, “The majority of British buyers are still looking for coastal locations and with nearly 5000 km of varied coastline from spectacular cliff faces to white sandy beaches Spain does not disappoint. Prices for frontline real estate will always be at a premium but there are still plenty of bargains to be had up to 5km inland and especially in the lesser known costas such as the Costa Calida or Costa Daurada.”

The World in Dubai is probably the most famous artificial island housing development on the planet. With Spain’s coastline being so heavily built up already, developer suggestions for an artificial island near the city of Valencia, just off Malvarrosa beach, suggest a way to meet demand for seafront property in future.

‘La Luna de Valencia’, as the island would be known, would cover 1.6 million square metres. Only a million square metres of that would be land, and the remainder would be canals and channels. Solar energy and desalination facilities will keep the island supplied with power and water. Property would include apartments and villas, with the smallest apartments measuring 40 square metres – enough for holiday use and costing from 300,000 Euros.

Spain’s 1988 Ley de Costas, which governs building around the coastline, expressly forbids the extension of land into the sea, which La Luna de Valencia would do. Given the Spanish Environment Ministry’s current crack down on land-based developments that breach the law, including the demolition of properties built too close to the sea, and concerns about the effect of global-warming-induced sea level rises, the developer is going to have an incredibly difficult time getting planning permission.

With results in from the last major Melbourne property auction weekend this year it is clear that 2007 has been one of the strongest years for vendors on record.

REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo said that the property auction clearance rate for 2007 was 82 per cent, 15 per cent higher than last year.

“Not only did demand increase but so did the number of auctions. There were 30 per cent more auctions than last year with 29,718 Melbourne homes presented for auction compared to 22,257 last year.

“To put this into perspective, there were more homes sold under the hammer this year than there were presented for auction last year.

“It is therefore no surprise that Melbourne residential property has experienced its highest level of growth since 2002 and has exceeded the expectations of many agents, vendors and buyers.

“This is reflected in the increase in prices of homes sold. In 2002 the Melbourne median house price increased by 13.5 per cent, the following four years growth was substantially lower and averaged only 3.5 per cent per year. Over the 12 months to September Melbourne’s median house price has again increased 13 per cent.

“When looking at the significant price growth over the preceding 12 months, which has been driven by strong demand, it provides some insight into why residential property has in many instances been selling for more than the advertised price.

“The performance of the property market next year will depend on the impact of recent rate increases or any further increases and impacts from changes in the costs of living linked to oil or drought,” Mr Raimondo concluded.

The total number of Australian jobs advertised in newspapers and on the Internet increased by 0.7 percent in November to a weekly average of 256,356 per week. This follows a 2.7 percent rise in total advertisements recorded in October. The total number of advertisements in November was 36.8 percent higher than 12 months ago.

Looking at the different channels for advertising jobs, the number of job advertisements in newspapers increased by 0.2 percent in November. This follows a 1.7 percent increase in October. Newspaper advertisements are now 3.7 percent higher than in November 2006.

The rise in newspaper job advertisements in November was driven by increases in South Australia; Victoria; Tasmania; Western Australia and Queensland. These increases were partially offset by sizeable falls in both the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory, with a marginal decline also recorded in New South Wales.

The number of Internet job advertisements grew modestly by 0.8 percent in November to average 235,859 per week. In trend terms, Internet job advertisements increased just 0.1 percent, the slowest rate of growth since February 2003. Nevertheless, the trend estimate of Internet job advertisements still remains 32 percent higher than a year ago.

“Total Australian job advertisements have reached a new high, indicating that demand for workers remains very strong. This reflects the continued strong economic momentum of the Australian economy, as illustrated by growth in GDP of 4.3 percent over the year to the September quarter,” ANZ Head of Australian Economics Tony Pearson said.

However, the monthly trend increase in job advertisements has continued to ease, suggesting the demand for labour is not rising as strongly as it was earlier in the year. The forward nature of the relationship between the Job Advertisements series and employment suggests that employment growth will continue to slow over coming months, although it will remain positive. Although we cannot be sure of what is driving this development, it may be that recent increases in interest rates and uncertainty associated with the global financial market volatility has made businesses more cautious in putting on additional workers, even while economic activity remains robust,” Mr Pearson said.

“Looking at job advertisements by state, it continues to be the smaller states of Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory which are showing the strongest increases in job advertisements. Queensland and New South Wales are also showing signs of improvement. In contrast, job advertisements in Western Australia and to a lesser extent in South Australia appear to be turning down,” Mr Pearson said.

Canadian employment rose by an estimated 43,000 in November, pushing the employment rate to another record high (63.8%). So far this year, employment has increased 2.3% (+388,000), stronger than the 1.8% increase seen over the same period in 2006. As more people entered the labour force in November, the unemployment rate moved up 0.1 of a percentage point to 5.9%.

Following three months of strong increases in the public sector, November’s employment gains were mostly in the private sector. However, employment growth in the public sector has continued to outpace that of the private sector for the past 12 months.

Four industries recorded employment increases in November: transportation and warehousing; business, building and other support services; educational services; and natural resources. Gains were concentrated among men aged 25 to 54 years.

Growth in average hourly wages remained strong in November, with a year-over-year increase estimated at 4.2%, well above the most recent increase in the Consumer Price Index (+2.4%).

According to the most recent international data available, Canada’s employment rate was higher than that of the United States and most European countries in the second quarter of 2007. Among European countries, only Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden had higher rates of employment.

British Columbia
Following several months of slow growth, British Columbia added an estimated 26,000 workers to its workforce in November, all in full time, pushing its employment rate to a record high of 63.9%. Almost half of this increase was in construction. Since the start of the year, employment has risen 80,000 (+3.6%) in the province, led by trade; construction; information, culture and recreation; and transportation and warehousing.

Quebec
Despite manufacturing declines, employment in Quebec increased 19,000 in November, all in part time, with gains spread across the service sector. So far in 2007, Quebec’s employment rate has been trending up, reaching a new record high of 61.4% in November.

New Brunswick
Employment in New Brunswick rose by 5,000 in November. So far in 2007, employment has increased 4.2%, the fastest pace of growth among all provinces, with gains mostly in full time. This province also experienced a large increase in its employment rate reaching a record high of 60.0% in November.

Saskatchewan
Following losses earlier in the year, Saskatchewan experienced employment gains for the third consecutive month, up by 5,000 in November. Despite these recent gains, employment was up only 0.9% in the first 11 months of 2007. Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate in November remained one of the lowest in the country at 4.0%, behind only Alberta’s (3.6%).

OntarioFollowing two months of strong growth, employment in Ontario was little changed in November. As more people entered the labour force, Ontario’s unemployment rate increased to 6.2% in November.

Alberta
Alberta’s employment remained unchanged for the third consecutive month, leaving total growth so far in 2007 at 3.2% (+62,000). This is significantly slower than the pace of growth observed over the same period in 2006 (+5.8%).

Quotable Value has released November’s figures for New Zealand’s housing market. The average sale price of a house in New Zealand has decreased to $393,198 (£149,505) from October’s $406,176 (£154,439). Property values have increased 11.4% over the calander year. New Zealand’s average house prices are not directly comparable with the UK’s because, unlike the UK, the average home in New Zealand is a detached bungalow.

QV spokesperson Blue Hancock said:

“In the lead-up to the holiday season the residential property market remains steady with a softening of the annual property growth figures across the majority of the country. The market continues to favour buyers over sellers. Buyers seem content to take their time before committing themselves to purchase and sellers are considering reducing asking prices accordingly.”

House Prices in New Zealand
Three Months Ending November 2007

* Assumed exchange rate is £1 = NZ$2.63