Property bubbles continue to be the focus of attention in Thailand, but it is a much different story in Iceland and Hong Kong where the hot real estate markets are causing concern after they finished in the top 2 spots of Knight Frank’s Global House Price Index for Q1 2017.
The European island nation and Chinese SAR both posted double digit average price growth in the 1st quarter of this year. A total of nine other countries had price growth of 10 per cent or higher during the period up from 4 countries in the same period last year.
Average price growth in Iceland was 17.8 per cent and the situation could get worse on the island if the estimated 9,000 new apartments needed over the next 3 years in Reykjavik to keep pace with demand aren’t delivered, according to Kate Everett-Allen, Partner with International Residential Research at Knight Frank.
Housing prices in Hong Kong continue to rise despite newly introduced lending restrictions, reported Nicholas Holt, head of research for Asia-Pacific. In the 1st quarter, average price growth came in at 14.4 per cent. And while property curbs have helped cool the housing market in Mainland China, which dropped from 7th to 10th place worldwide on the index, home prices in Hong Kong keep rising.
“The headline national figure is somewhat tempered by weaker growth in some of the smaller Tier-3 and Tier-4 cities,” says Holt.
The Knight Frank index tracks housing prices in 55 countries. The report concludes home prices worldwide grew by 6.5 per cent between the 1st quarter of 2016 and the 1st quarter of 2017. This was the highest growth rate recorded in the past 3 years.
“Three of the top 10 strongest growing markets globally were in Asia-Pacific at the end of the first quarter of 2017,” says Holt.
This story appears at property-report.com
Receive the latest property news on email from Thailand’s No.1 property website here, or read more project reviews
