Global housing prices have hit a new high, rising 4.6 percent over the last 12 months to September, up four percent from the previous peak in Q2 2008, revealed Knight Frank’s Global House Price Index.
“The index’s strong performance has been assisted not just by headline grabbing price rises in Dubai, China and Hong Kong, but also in a number of emerging markets,” said Kate Everett-Allen, International Residential Research at Knight Frank.
In the year to September, Taiwan, Indonesia, Turkey and Brazil saw prices rise by 15.4 percent, 13.5 percent, 12.5 percent and 11.9 percent respectively.
More than 69 percent of the countries monitored by the index recorded positive price growth.
As for Singapore, the report noted that “private residential property prices have moderated to a low growth level”, unlike other Asian markets such as Hong Kong and China, where house prices have continued to increase despite the introduction of cooling measures.
“This demonstrates the tentative effectiveness of the property cooling measures and the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR) ruling, which reduced speculative activity in the market and debt exposure of property buyers,” said Alice Tan, Head of Consultancy & Research, Knight Frank Singapore.
Notably, 17 countries saw house prices fall in the year to September, of which all but three are located in Europe. The three are South Korea, New Zealand and Japan.
Everett-Allen noted that the world’s housing markets are facing several risks including geo-political concerns and slowing growth rates in key emerging markets, “but perhaps the most significant at present is a reduction in policy stimulus by the US Federal Reserve”.
Nikki De Guzman, Junior Journalist at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact her about this or other stories email nikki@propertyguru.com.sg
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