House prices are going through the roof in some global cities, but others in the same country have fallen through the floor, according to a new study.
Although house prices in China are soaring – by up to 31.7% in Wuxi, a city of 6 million near Shanghai – homeowners in Skopje, Macedonia, have seen the price of their homes drop by 7% in the year to March 31, 2017.
International property consultant Knight Frank monitors house prices in hundreds of cities around the world and publishes the top 150 in the Global Residential Cities Index each quarter.
While China has 13 cities in the top 20, the statistics show cities within the same country have their own housing markets with prices rising and falling depending on local factors.
Predictions hard to make
Canada is a good example – Toronto is the fourth best performing city for house prices with a 24.9% rise in Q1 2017, but Edmonton and Quebec languish in the 140/141 places with a price drop of –2.8%.
Likewise, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, rank 232/24 with a 14.4% and 13.4% rise respectively, but Darwin is in at 149 with a fall of 5.9% during the year.
“Tighter regulations in the form of higher loan-to-value ratios and limits on second home purchases are now filtering through into China’s house price indicators. The average price change across all 20 Chinese cities tracked by our index declined from 19.2% last quarter to 15.9% this quarter,” said Knight Frank researcher Kate Everett-Allen.
Global residential cities Index Q1 2017 – House prices rises of 10% or more
Global residential cities Index Q1 2017 – House prices falling
Source: Knight Frank
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