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Global housing price growth slow in Q1

Dubai, June 3, 2014

The global house price index has risen for eight consecutive quarters but the rate of price growth slowed in the first three months of 2014.

Although the index saw slower growth in the first quarter of 2014 - rising by 0.6 per cent compared to 1.2 per cent last quarter - it still recorded annual growth of 7.1 per cent, according to Knight Frank, a leading property consultancy.

The final quarter of the year often sees a peak in sales transactions as buyers rush to complete sales before the New Year when
new tax rules often come into effect, leading to a quieter market in the first quarter.

Dubai has topped the annual rankings for the fourth consecutive quarter, recording a price growth of 27.7 per cent in the year to the end of March. However, prices rose by 3.4 per cent in the first three months of 2014, evidence that the doubling of transfer fees and the mortgage cap are having an impact on the emirate’s property market.

The turnaround in the US, Australian and Icelandic housing markets is evident with all three countries now appearing in the top ten rankings for annual price growth alongside key emerging markets such as China, Turkey and Brazil, said the Knight Frank report.

The pace of price growth in the US slowed slightly in the first quarter. Prices rose on average by 10.3 per cent on an annualised basis, down from 11.3 per cent last quarter.

The bottom ten rankings reads like a geographical tour of Eastern and Southern Europe. House prices here, while still in decline, are now falling at a slower rate, even in the weakest housing markets such as Croatia, Cyprus and Greece, it stated.

Fourteen countries recorded a decline in house prices year-on-year, of which 12 are in Europe, remarked Kate Everett-Allen, the international residential researcher, at Knight Frank.

Singapore and Japan are the only non-European countries in the bottom ten rankings. Cooling measures and tighter mortgage lending conditions have halted price growth in Singapore, whilst in Japan “abenomics” has yet to push house price growth into positive territory.

"For the first time since 2008 no single country tracked by the Global House Price Index has recorded an annual price fall in excess of 10 per cent," stated Everett-Allen.

On the future outlook, she said the index’s performance was likely to strengthen again in the second quarter. "All eyes will remain on central banks, in particular the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank. The issue is not when interest rates rise but the speed," she added.-TradeArabia News Service

 




Tags: Dubai | Knight Frank |

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