11 June 2015, Singapore – Knight Frank, the independent global property consultancy, 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.
Report highlights:
– Despite the cooling measures in place, Hong Kong leads the rankings (up 19% year-on-year) due to tight supply pushing up mainstream prices.
– 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.
A two-speed Europe is increasingly evident.
Ms Kate Everett-Allen, International Residential Research at Knight Frank, says, “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%.
“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.”
