Knight Frank today launches the Global Residential Cities Index for Q1 2017 which tracks the performance of mainstream house prices across 150 cities worldwide, 45 of which are from the Asia-Pacific region.
Results for Q1 2017:
- House prices across 150 cities worldwide increased by 6.9% on average in the year to March 2017, its highest rate of annual growth since Q4 2013.
- Chinese cities still dominate the top rankings (seven places in top ten) but first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have shifted downwards. Tighter regulations in the form of lower loan-to-value ratios and limits on second-home purchases are now filtering through into China’s house price indicators. The average price change across all 20 Chinese cities tracked by our index declined from 19.2% last quarter to 15.9% this quarter.
- Toronto (24.8%), home to a 15% new foreign buyer tax, is likely to mirror Vancouver (12.2%) in seeing its rate of growth moderate in coming months.
- Of the 150 cities tracked, 123 (82%) recorded positive annual price growth and 40 of these recorded double-digit rises.
- Dutch cities are emerging as a key centre of growth, all four cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague) tracked by the index exceeded 10% annual growth.
David Ji, Director, Head of Research & Consultancy, Greater China, says “Further cooling measures on Chinese Mainland are expected to drag down the pace of residential price growth. First-tier cities are set to see a mild 3-5% rise in home prices over 2017. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong market has started to feel the pain of interest-rate rise. We expect residential price growth to slow down in the coming months. Over the year, home prices are expected to increase 5-10%.”