ranked third in seeing the biggest hike in mainstream housing prices,
with an increase of around 20 percent in the year to March 2016,
following two Chinese cities, according to Knight Frank’s Global
Residential Cities Index.
The only non-Chinese city at the
top of the ranking was Turkey’s largest metropolis Istanbul, where house
prices rose by 19.6 percent, according to the report.
Another Turkish city, İzmir, also featured in the top 10, ranking ninth with a 16.7 percent rise in housing prices.
The
southern Chinese city of Shenzhen topped the list, with home prices
there up 62.5 percent on average over the period, thanks to the city’s
expanding technology industry, the survey showed.
Along with
Shenzhen in the top five are Shanghai, where prices grew by 30.5 percent
from the first quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of 2016, Nanjing
(17.8 percent) and Beijing (17.6 percent).
The Global
Residential Cities Index, which is based on official house price data
published by either National Statistic Offices or Central Banks, for 150
cities across the world, increased by 4.5 percent overall.
Seventy-four
percent of the cities tracked by the index saw house prices rise in the
year to March 2016. The gap between the strongest and weakest
performing housing market has expanded from 55 percentage points last
quarter to 74, according to the report.
The rate of growth for
China, however, may slow down during the remainder of the year, amid new
measures introduced in March in cities such as Shenzhen and Shanghai.
“The
new rules range from higher down payments for first and second homes,
as well as longer residency requirements for non-locals wishing to
purchase,” stated the report.
Rising prices in Scandinavia
Another
region enjoying considerable growth, according to the report, is
Scandinavia, fueled by a combination of limited new supply, high demand
and cheap financing. The cities of Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo, Oslo
and Copenhagen all recorded annual price growth of between 9 percent and
17 percent in the year to March.
In North America, Vancouver continues to lead the way, with a year-to-year growth of 17 percent.
“The
data under analysis covered the period to the first quarter of 2016 but
looking to the future, all eyes will now be on the U.K.’s decision to
leave the EU and the impact it has on property markets, not just in the
U.K. but globally,” warned the report.