Dubai property prices were down by 6.1% in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the same period last year, ranking it among the world’s worst-performing markets, a Knight Frank report has found.
The emirate was placed 53rd out of 56 countries ranked by the British property firm’s Global House Price Index, having seen a similar year-on-year decline in residential property prices as Greece.
Only three countries – China, Cyprus and Ukraine – saw steeper declines, according to Knight Frank’s report.
Dubai values fell by 3.7% in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the last three months of last year, according to the data.
Global property prices increased by just 0.3% on average in the year to the end of March – but there was a “significant disparity between world regions”, Knight Frank said.
Hong Kong leads the ranking with a 18.7% year-on-year increase in the first quarter of the year, which Knight Frank attributed to tight supply pushing up prices.
Seven of the top-ten countries ranked by annual house-price growth are in Europe, including Ireland, Iceland and Sweden.
“Around 75% of countries tracked by the index recorded flat or positive annual price growth in Q1 2015, three years earlier this figure was closer to 47%,” said Knight Frank’s Kate Everett-Allen.