Slower Chinese City Price Growth Takes Shine Off Global Property Index

Tom Burroughes

9 October 2017

A slower pace of house price growth in Chinese cities caused global increases in residential brick-and-mortar assets to slow in the 12 months to the end of June compared with the 12 months to end-March, a survey by , the global property consultants, has reported.

Its Global Urban House Price Index rose 6.1 per cent in the latest 12-month period, against the 6.9 per cent outturn in the 12 months to the end of March.

In another sign of slower gains, the report said the number of cities reporting annual price growth above 20 per cent has fallen from 12 to nine in the last three months. In the previous report, Last quarter, seven of the top ten rankings equated to Chinese cities. However, three months’ later, only three Chinese cities remain; Wuxi, Zhengzhou and Changsha.

“However, this is a deceleration rather than a crash. Prices are still rising on a year-on-year basis in all twenty of the Chinese cities we track within the index. The outliers have reduced in number and the lower tier cities are now outpacing cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, which have seen the most stringent cooling measures,” the report said.

Toronto leads the rankings this quarter with prices ending the year to June 29 per cent higher. Following the introduction of a new tax on foreign buyers in April of this year, Toronto may follow Vancouver’s path and see price growth moderate in the coming months, however, Knight Frank said.

It added that latest data from the Bank of Canada shows Toronto registered a decline in prices in August – the first since January 2016.

“Long-term frontrunners such as Hong Kong, Reykjavik, Wellington and Budapest are holding firm but this quarter we have seen some new contenders rise up the rankings, most notably some key Indian cities. A year ago, the ten Indian cities tracked by our index averaged 3% annual price growth, today this figure has jumped to 12 per cent,” it said.

Among other details, Singapore prices dropped 2.1 per cent, while Zurich managed to only eke out a gain of 2.9 per cent; London rose 4.1 per cent – perhaps feeling some post-Brexit chill – and New York came in at 3.9 per cent.