House prices in Dubai were some of the fastest falling in the world in the second quarter of 2015, performing worse than those of the hard hit economies of Greece, China, Cyprus and Ukraine, new research has shown.
According to Knight Frank’s Global House Prices Index, mainstream residential prices fell by 12.2 per cent in the year to June and by 2.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter as volumes continued to slide.
Knight Frank ranked the city’s house price performance bottom of a list of 56 global cities for the period.
“Weaker demand, a strong US dollar and ongoing cooling measures have dampened sales volumes in the mainstream sector,” said Kate Everett-Allen, partner for international residential research at Knight Frank.
Overall, Knight Frank’s Global House Price Index rose by only 0.1 per cent in the year to June, its weakest rate of growth since the final quarter of 2011.
Of the 56 housing markets tracked, 27 per cent recorded an annual decline in prices as new economic woes in China continued to plague global markets.
War-torn Ukraine was the second worst performing housing market recorded by Knight Frank, with a 12.0 per cent annual decline, while in China prices fell 5.7 per cent over the same period.
Hong Kong had the highest reported house price rise over the period, with increases of 20.7 per cent in the year to June. It was followed by Turkey where mainstream house prices rose by an average of 18.5 per cent.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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