Keyword Difficulty on Local Searches

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I have got a site targeted for a New Zealand audience. The site is about property in Australia. The SERP for the keyword "real estate australia" is dominated by .com.au domains which are obviously set for Australia.

Does google give .co.nz domains priority in the SERPs for New Zealand or are .com.au and .co.nz domains treated evenly for New Zealand based searches?

http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=real+estate+australia&pws=0&gl=NZ

Would a .co.nz domain have higher priority in this SERP?

[AlanMosley]

I would assume that for NZ users .nz would have a advantage, but real easte is very compeditive, and the .au domains will have all other things in their favour.

I am in Australia and i know that realestate.com.au and domain.com.au and teh like have very big budgets

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Thanks Alan

yeah, they surely would have big big budgets and are clearly very authorative as they totally dominate any property search with australia in it. I would just like to know a little more on how the algo works in this case.

[AlanMosley]

Well no one really knows for sure, but having a .nz website gives you a better chance with nz users, but it is only one signal. It does not mean that you will beat all .au sites, but if all other things are equal you will get the nod.

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Thanks Alan