Global Housing Markets Set to Slow Down

• Global Housing Markets Set to Slow Down

House prices rose in 24 out of the 45 world’s housing markets which have so far been published, prices fell in 21 of the countries.

A report by Globalpropertyguide said the more upbeat nominal figures, more familiar to the public, showed house price rose in 35 countries, and declined in 10 countries.

It added that, however, 29 of the surveyed housing markets showed weaker momentum in 2018 compared to the previous year, suggesting that global house price growth is now decelerating.

“Most of Europe and parts of Asia continue to experience strong price rises. There have also been notable increases in Singapore, Russia and Qatar. But Hong Kong, China, Sweden, Montenegro, Turkey and most of the Middle East have experienced either house price falls – or a sharp deceleration of house price rises,” it said.

“The strongest housing markets in our global house price survey during 2018 included Malta (+10.48 per cent), Makati CBD, Philippines (+9.91 per cent), Netherlands (+8.49 per cent), Singapore (+7.32 per cent), and Chile (+6.94 per cent), using inflation-adjusted figures. The biggest year-on-year house-price declines were in Egypt (-19.24 per cent), Turkey (-8.82 per cent), Dubai, UAE (-8.22 per cent), Kiev, Ukraine (-6.09 per cent), and Beijing, China (-3.73 per cent), again using inflation-adjusted figures,” the report said.

It stated that momentum was much weaker as only 16 of the world’s housing markets for which figures were available showed stronger upward momentum during 2018, while 29 housing markets showed weaker momentum.

Momentum, according to the report, is a measure of the “change in the change”; simply put, momentum has increased if a property market has risen faster this year than last (or fallen less). Momentum has weakened in almost two-thirds of the housing markets covered in our survey.

The report said, “Inflation-adjusted figures are used throughout this survey. In the case of Kiev, Ukraine, the Global Property Guide adjusts using the official US inflation rate since Ukrainian secondary market dwelling sales are denominated in US dollars.

“Malta is now the strongest housing market in our global survey, with residential property prices rising by 10.48 per cent during 2018, after year-on-year rises of 7.39 per cent in 2017, 12.71 per cent in 2016, 8.67 per cent in 2015, 4.33 per cent in 2014, and 5.34 per cent in 2013, using inflation-adjusted figures. During the latest quarter, property prices rose by 5.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter. Malta’s economy is projected to grow by 5.2 per cent this year – the fastest pace in the EU and about three times as much as the union’s average growth.”