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LONDON-The real estate sectors on only two stock exchanges worldwide showed positive growth in May 2006, according to new research by ResearchWorldwide.com.The report, Worldwide Stock Exchanges - Real Estate Sectors' Performance benchmark analysis, found the only two exchanges to show sector growth was the Philippines Stock Exchange and the GPR's real estate index on Euronext Amsterdam. They recorded 7.9% and 0.5% positive growth respectively for May 2006.

Real Estate sectors on 16 other stock exchanges recorded negative growth. The worst performer was Singapore's real estate sector which showed a 12.13% loss for May 2006 followed closely by Tokyo Stock Exchange's real estate sector, which fell 12.11%.Other real estate sectors that posted negative figures were Italy, -9.38%; Hong Kong, -8.63%; Sweden, -8.37%; Indonesia, -6.31%; Malaysia, - 4.64%; United Kingdom, -3.30%; and the US, -3.02%.

"Although stock markets worldwide suffered a painful correction during May 2006 their real estate sectors remain fundamentally sound, as before," the report says. Elsewhere, fears about the US housing market dampened sentiment toward construction stocks in the past few weeks. And in the UK, the FTSE E300 Construction & Building Materials index fell almost 6% in the past month, reducing the year-to-date advance to a little over 10%.