Irish property leads global price rise
03-30-2015
Irish property is leading property price growth around the world, according to new figures.
A report from Knight Frank shows that Irish home values jumped 16.3 per cent in the final quarter of 2014, compared to the same period one year earlier. Turkey was close behind, with a rise of 16.2 per cent year-on-year.
Even with the growth, though, the country has a long way to go before values return to their peak levels: prices have fallen, on average, by 38 per cent since the pre-recession high.
Ireland's rebound from recession marks a gradual shift in the global economy, notes Global Property Guide, which says that the world is now a two-speed market, with momentum slowing in established destinations, such as the USA and Dubai, and rising in others.
Indeed, Kazakhstan recorded the third highest annual property growth (14 per cent), according to Knight Frank, followed by Hong Kong (11.7 per cent) and Lithuania (10.7 per cent).
Global house prices climbed 1.8 per cent across the year overall, but declined 0.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015, its worst performance in more than two years.
Europe remained the worst-performing region, with prices rising by an average of 1.6 per cent across the whole of 2014. Within Europe, though, individual countries enjoyed positive growth: Spain's property prices climbed 0.3 per cent in Q4 2014, despite its overall 0.3 per cent fall.
According to Global Property Guide, 17 European markets saw property values grow more in 2014 than 2013, with only five recording weaker performance. As well as Spain, Portugal saw price declines slow, as the market bottomed out or stabilised.
Other markets, meanwhile, suffered a slowdown.
"While house prices have continued to rise in the United States and in Dubai, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil," explains Global Property Guide, "momentum in almost all of these countries has weakened. Dubai's house prices rose by 12.98 per cent in 2014, the second greatest rise; but its house price rises have rapidly decelerated and may be going into reverse."
Dublin, Ireland Photo: Darragh