View original post.

House-price growth across the globe slowed in the last quarter of 2010, according to new figures from global property agency and consultancy Knight Frank, which has a headquarters in London and about 207 offices worldwide including U.S.-based Newmark Knight Frank.

Twenty of the 49 countries analyzed by the company showed quarterly declines, with Dubai (-6.1 percent), Ireland (-3.5 percent), Cyprus (-2.1 percent) and the U.S. (-2.1 percent) recording some of the biggest falls.

Prices are now falling in 41 percent of countries tracked, compared with 31 percent in Q2 2010.

The fastest risers were Hong Kong (up 20.1 percent annually) and Latvia (up 16.9 percent) with the latter bouncing back from a 70 percent fall in prices during the credit crunch. 

The strongest regions were Asia-Pacific (7.5 percent annual growth), the Middle East (5.3 percent) and South America (3.8 percent). The weakest continents were Europe and North America.

The last legs of the global stimulus

Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, believes the slowdown is a result of the unwinding of the quantitative easing measures which came into effect in 2009. 

“The key trend at play in the global market is the unwinding of the stimulus packages put forward in 2009 in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific,” Bailey said.

“The impact of  ‘hot money’ created by quantitative easing may be dissipating, especially in Asia — where the 30 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent and even higher annual rates of growth, which were common in some Chinese and Indian cities a year ago, have now cooled considerably. 

“In Europe and the U.S., by contrast, the last vestige of the stimulus, namely ultra-low interest rates are regarded as critical to the ongoing security of the market. As an example, discussions surrounding an impending rise in the United Kingdom rate from 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent are enough to cause panic among housing market commentators.”

Country	Annual % change	6-month % change	Quarter % change
				Hong Kong	20.10%	10.10%	3.70%
Latvia	16.90%	1.20%	-0.80%
Israel	16.20%	8.40%	3.50%
China (based on Beijing and Shanghai)	15.30%	6.10%	6.40%
Singapore	14.00%	3.40%	1.80%
Austria	9.90%	4.90%	3.70%
France	9.50%	5.60%	1.40%
India	8.90%	5.60%	-1.70%
Poland	8.10%	8.30%	1.10%
Denmark	7.80%	4.30%	1.50%
Taiwan	7.40%	2.00%	-1.00%
Belgium	6.80%	1.70%	2.60%
Norway	6.60%	-0.60%	-0.10%
Malaysia	6.20%	3.40%	0.90%
Australia	5.80%	0.50%	0.70%
Finland	5.40%	0.70%	0.30%
Sweden	5.20%	0.90%	0.40%
Switzerland	5.20%	2.60%	2.00%
Canada	4.10%	-0.60%	-0.30%
Slovenia	3.90%	0.70%	1.80%
Colombia	3.80%	3.10%	3.80%
Germany	3.00%	2.10%	0.20%
Indonesia	2.90%	1.10%	0.70%
Turkey	2.60%	1.50%	1.00%
Luxembourg	2.60%	0.10%	0.00%
Hungary	1.80%	2.00%	1.90%
Malta	1.60%	0.90%	1.60%
Jersey	1.30%	6.00%	0.80%
South Africa	0.90%	-2.40%	0.40%
Russia	0.90%	0.20%	0.20%
United Kingdom	0.70%	-3.20%	-2.50%
Bulgaria	0.50%	-0.70%	-0.30%
Netherlands	0.50%	-2.10%	-1.70%
Iceland	-1.40%	0.30%	1.30%
Italy	-1.40%	-0.60%	-0.30%
New Zealand	-1.60%	-0.90%	0.30%
Slovak Republic	-2.10%	-1.80%	-2.60%
Czech Republic	-3.00%	-1.40%	-0.90%
Spain	-3.50%	-1.30%	-0.40%
Japan	-3.60%	-1.60%	-0.80%
Portugal	-4.00%	-3.10%	-1.20%
United States	-4.10%	-5.30%	-2.10%
Greece	-6.00%	-2.90%	-0.70%
Dubai, United Arab Emirates	-6.10%	-10.10%	-6.10%
Croatia	-7.20%	-3.70%	-0.90%
Ukraine	-7.80%	-1.60%	0.00%
Lithuania	-10.10%	-5.80%	-3.90%
Ireland	-10.80%	-4.80%	-3.50%
Cyprus	—	-6.50%	-2.10%