Global home prices keep growing in first quarter
Print Edition
HOME prices continued to rise around the world in the first quarter of this year despite some geographical shifts, the latest Juwai World Housing Report found.
The survey, released by China’s leading real estate website for overseas properties, showed that the boom is being led by the Pacific, Persian Gulf and European housing markets. While government-led cooling measures have led to slowing momentum in some Asian markets, inflation-adjusted house prices climbed in 31 of the 45 markets tracked during the three-month period with 30 of them showing stronger upward momentum.
Middle East
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is the top performer in Juwai’s survey for the fifth consecutive quarter, with home prices surging 31.6 percent year on year and 9.6 percent quarter on quarter. Real estate transactions rose 11 percent from same period a year earlier while by value, they jumped 38 percent to US$16.6 billion. The boom is expected to continue through the year, as Dubai launches several economic projects and begins preparations for Expo 2020.
Housing demand, however, is falling in Israel, which saw the average price of owner-occupied dwellings edge up only 1.85 percent year on year in the first quarter, a sharp slowdown from the 8.2 percent annual rise registered during the same period a year earlier.
Pacific
In New Zealand, the fifth-best performer in the survey, median house prices jumped 8.4 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2014, accelerating from the annual rise for 2013. Demand, however, continued to fall, primarily due to central bank restrictions on high loan-to-value ratio lending.
In Australia, house prices in eight major cities rose 8.3 percent annually in the first quarter of 2014, the strongest performance registered in the country since the second quarter of 2010, as a result of record low interest rates. Residential construction, meanwhile, soared 20 percent from a year earlier.
Europe
Housing performance in Europe improved, with more markets showing booming signs. Baltic prices rose strongly, led by Tallinn, Estonia, the second-best performer in the survey, where the average purchase price of dwellings surged 20 percent over the previous year.
While home prices in Ireland fell from the previous quarter, they were still up 7.5 percent in the first quarter from same period a year earlier. That compared to annual decline of 3.5 percent in 2013.
Also performing strongly were Turkey, Austria and Sweden. More modest growth was recorded in Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Portugal and the Netherlands. Countries where housing prices were declining, such as Greece and Spain, generally saw smaller declines compared to the first quarter of 2013.
Asia
Asian housing markets registered mixed performances in the first quarter. In the Philippines, the best-performing Asian country, the average price of condos in downtown Manila rose almost 9 percent year on year.
More modest housing price increases were seen in Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea.
Government cooling measures caused Hong Kong and Singapore to perform poorly, however. In Hong Kong, home prices fell 2.7 percent during the first quarter, in sharp contrast to the growth of 20.4 percent in the first quarter of 2013. The total number of homes sold during the January-March period plummeted 33.7 percent year on year. In Singapore, the housing market continued to decline amid modest economic growth. House prices retreated 1.7 percent year on year and 1.4 percent quarter on quarter.
US
Although almost all 20 major US cities saw strong price appreciation, these increases are coming at a slower pace. The S&P/Case-Shiller seasonally adjusted national home price index climbed only 5.4 percent in the first quarter of this year from same period a year earlier. Quarter-on-quarter, the US national home price index dipped 0.5 percent.
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