In early 2019, Latin America was the world's best-performing country. propertyfinder
According to the new Global House Price Index from international property consultancy Knight Frank for Q1 2019, Slovenia has the world's fastest growing house prices, with average values increasing 18.2 percent year on year. The strong price rise is due to falling unemployment, low interest rates, and, until recently, restricted supply.
The following are the main results from the first quarter of 2019's global housing report:
Slovenia has topped the annual rankings for the second quarter in a row.
All 56 countries have an average annual growth rate of 3.9 percent.
Six of the top ten markets in the index are located in Europe.
In the first quarter of 2019, Latin America outperformed the rest of the world.
Knight Frank's Kate Everett-Allen, Partner, International Residential Research, said, "Slovenia has the fastest-rising house prices in the world, with average prices up 18.2 percent year on year. The strong price rise is due to falling unemployment, low interest rates, and restricted supply until recently."
Six of the top ten countries are from Europe this quarter, with Hungary (9.2%) making its fourth consecutive appearance in the top ten.
In the first quarter of 2019, China's price growth accelerated, bringing annual growth to 11.6 percent on a national basis. Though we expect Hong Kong prices to remain relatively stable for the rest of the year, we expect continued growth in the Greater Bay Area (excluding Hong Kong and Macau), although in the single digits. We expect market inflation to be tightly regulated across the rest of Mainland China through a variety of stringent policy initiatives.
In April, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued warnings to six Chinese cities to control land and housing price inflation, and in May, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued warnings to four more cities: Suzhou, Foshan, Dalian, and Nanning.
All changes with the passage of time.
A number of countries that seemed to have settled at the top and bottom of the rankings table in 2017 and 2018 have seen their fortunes change. Former outperformers such as Iceland (4.4 percent), Turkey (3.5 percent), and New Zealand (3.2 percent) are now squarely in the middle of the table, while Ukraine (1.3 percent), Greece (2.4 percent), and Peru (2.9 percent) are steadily improving.
The housing market in Greece gained traction in 2018, but there is still a long way to go. While prices are now 40.8 percent lower than they were in Q3 2008, the country has now experienced four consecutive quarters of positive annual growth.
A Unique Relationship
Three years ago, the United States and the United Kingdom were tied for first place in the rankings, but now they are separated by 17 points. Despite a 3.7 percent annual growth rate, the rate of growth in the United States is declining, down from 6.5 percent in Q1 2018.
Political instability in the United Kingdom has resulted in a "wait and see" impact, with prices rising 1.4 percent in the last year.
In the year leading up to Q1 2019, the index grew by 3.9 percent, the slowest rate of annual growth in three years. Buyer sentiment is being influenced by rising threats to global economic development, such as trade tensions, slower Chinese GDP growth, and protracted Brexit negotiations. The announcement that the Australian Central Bank has lowered interest rates and that the Federal Reserve will follow suit later this year may provide some relief.