In the last few months, New Zealand house prices have gone up significantly. This was a trend before Covid-19, but they were expected to come down. The government made a new law stopping foreign speculation on New Zealand Houses, and this was not enough to stop house prices rising. Economists thought the Covid-19 recession would cause house prices to drop, but it didn’t. This may be because of New Zealanders returning home and buying houses, or it could be because of people seeking investments due to low interest rates.

Vocabulary:

significantly: very much

trend: a pattern in society

speculation: when people buy things only because they want to make money from selling it again

recession: when the economy is bad

interest rates: extra money paid on a loan

Expressing cause and effect:

Cause (verb): (noun) caused (noun) to (verb) (noun)

cause (noun): The cause of (noun) is (noun*)

Because (conjunction): (noun) is because of (noun*)

                                      (noun) (verb) because (subject + predicate)

due to (conjunction):    (noun) is due to (noun*)

*These nouns are often gerunds. For example: Obesity is often due to overeating.