Housing markets around the world continue to struggle amid economic stagnation or decline and rising unemployment, according to Knight Frank’s Global Housing Index for 1Q 2009
. On the positive side, 15 countries showed average price increases, year on year. Israel was the top performer, recording growth of 10.9%. The Czech Republic followed with growth of 9.9%. The worst performers were Dubai and Latvia which recorded falls in average prices of 32% and 36% respectively.
The shorter term economic outlook suggests that the world’s housing markets are likely to continue to suffer for the remainder of 2009. On a quarterly basis, the most dramatic fall in prices occurred in Dubai with -40 percent and Singapore with -16.2 percent. The best performing markets were Jersey with a 5.6 percent increase in values and Finland with a 4 percent increase.
“The world’s housing markets remain under intense pressure with little real evidence of any of the hoped for ‘green shoots’ and even the improvement in performance shown in some countries in the last quarter may yet turn out to be a false dawn according to some commentators,” says Nick Barnes, Knight Frank’s head of residential research.
