Singapore among world’s top five for property price gains

March 8, 2012

 

Singapore ranks among the world’s top five in terms of residential property price growth, said a report released on Thursday.

According to the Global House Price Index by Knight Frank, Singapore saw home prices increase by 50.5 per cent over the last five years, the fourth highest increase globally.

Over the same period, China topped the list with a 110.9 per cent increase in home prices followed by Hong Kong (93.7 per cent) and Israel (54.5 per cent).

However, on a year-on-year basis, Singapore ranked 15th, with home prices rising 4.6 per cent.

This is a fall from its previous 5th ranking after a 14 per cent on-year price increase in 2010.

Brazil had the highest on-year increase of 26.3 per cent, followed by Estonia (12.3 per cent) and Hong Kong (11.3 per cent).

The index rose 0.5 per cent in 2011, compared to 2.8 per cent in 2010.

Knight Frank said that fourth quarter 2011 represented the index’s weakest quarterly performance since the second quarter of 2009.

“This suggests that a return to significant house price growth around the world is some way off yet,” it added.

All 12 rankings at the bottom in the 52-country list are dominated by European markets with Ireland, down 17 per cent, in last place.

Knight Frank added: “A combination of global economic uncertainty, weak consumer confidence and strict mortgage lending criteria are dampening growth in Europe and North America while stringent government cooling measures in Asia Pacific are successfully curtailing house price inflation there.”

Source : Channel NewsAsia – 8 Mar 2012