Knight Frank Global House Price Index growth the lowest in four years

PETALING JAYA (Sept 9): The Knight Frank Global House Price Index 2Q2015 rose by 0.1% in the year to June, the weakest rate of growth since the final quarter of 2011.

The data showed out of a total of 56 housing markets tracked, 27% recorded an annual decline in price where else back in 2011, over 44% of housing markets fell into this bracket.

“Places like Hong Kong (up 20.7%) and China (down 5.7%) saw both countries at opposite ends of the annual rankings. What caused this is the increasing liquidity and the flow of mainland Chinese investors into the Hong Kong’s residential sector, which saw new homes sold in the first 2015 exceeded 8,700 units,” said international residential research of Knight Frank, Kate Everett-Allen.

In Malaysia, house prices are up by 4% in 1Q2015 from a year ago, while Singapore's house prices dipped 3% in 2Q2015. 

Everett-Allen also noted that the housing markets in China and the US, which account for around 33% of global GDP, showed diverging paths.

"In the start of 2014, mainstream prices in China saw a fall in price, with an average of 6.2% while there was an increase in the average price in the US by 7.6% in the same period,” she said.

Meanwhile in Dubai, mainstream residential prices fell by 2.8% quarter-on-quarter and declined by 12.2% in the year to June. The fall in price can be attributed to weaker demand, a strong US dollar and ongoing cooling measures, which have dampened sales volumes in the mainstream sector the report noted.

“We also see that Europe is no longer the weakest-performing world region, a title it has held for 15 consecutive quarters. On average, prices across Europe increased by 2.8% year-on-year, with Turkey, Estonia, Luxembourg and Ireland all achieving double-digit annual price growth,” concluded Everett-Allen.