Property prices in New Zealand are currently growing faster than anywhere else, new figures show.
While Knight Frank’s latest Global House Price Index revealed that NZ is second to Turkey in terms of overall house price growth, once the impact of inflation is stripped out of the equation, then NZ comes out on top.
Overall, property prices in Turkey increased by 13.9 per cent in the year to the end of the second quarter of 2016. During the same period, property prices in NZ grew by 11.2 per cent. Canada (10 per cent), Chile (9.4 per cent) and Sweden (8.9 per cent) round out the top five.
While the index only tracks nominal price growth, were real price growth, where inflation is stripped out, to be considered then New Zealand would find itself in first place with 11 per cent annual growth. Meanwhile Turkey – with inflation in excess of 7 per cent – is pushed down into 13th position.
At the other end of the table, 11 countries of the 55 tracked by the index recorded falling property prices in this 12-month period. The steepest falls were seen in Taiwan (-9.4 per cent), followed by Ukraine (-9.2 per cent), Hong Kong (-6.1 per cent), Morocco (-3.6 per cent) and Greece (-2.6 per cent).
Overall, when all 55 markets are taken into account, the Knight Frank Global House Price Index increased by 4 per cent over the past year.
However, according to Kate Everett-Allen, Head of International Residential Research at Knight Frank, how the index performs over the next few months is likely to centre around events in the UK and USA.
“All eyes in the coming months will be on the UK and the US,” she said. “Both housing markets have been level pegging in the last year, recording annual growth of 5.2 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively.
“The outcome of the US presidential election and the negotiations following the UK’s Brexit decision will ultimately determine the confidence of owner occupiers and the flow of investor capital across a large part of the world in the short to medium term.”
Article published 7th September 2016