Knight Frank today launches the Global House Price Index for Q1 2015. The index recorded its weakest annual growth for three years, rising by just 0.3% in the year to March 2015. Around 75% of countries tracked by the index recorded flat or positive annual price growth in Q1 2015, three years earlier this figure was closer to 47.2%.
Report highlights:
- Despite the cooling measures in place, Hong Kong leads the rankings (up about 19% year on year). A lack of supply along with the popularity of smaller apartments due to affordability constraints is behind the acceleration in mainstream prices. Since the credit tightening measures launched in February, mass residential prices gained another 3% in early June compared with the end of February. Looking ahead, the government said it could implement further cooling policies or relax existing measures, hinging on future market performances, especially under the impact of potential interest-rate rises in the US.
- Ukraine, Cyprus and China occupy the bottom rankings for annual price growth, falling 15.5%, 8.2% and 6.4% respectively.
- The weakest-performing world region is now Russia & CIS with prices down 2.3% on average year-on-year.
- Seven of the top ten countries ranked by annual house price growth are now in Europe.
Kate Everett-Allen, International Residential Research at Knight Frank, says, “The two bellwethers of global housing economics, China and the US, are pursuing divergent courses but for how long? While prices continue to soften in China (down 6.4% on average year-on-year), the volume of sales rose 7% year-on-year in April on the back of looser monetary policy. The US, on the other hand, recorded 4.1% growth in the year to March but with underlying inflation still rising, a rate rise is expected later this year.”