Dubai falls to bottom of Knight Frank global house price index
12.2% annual drop in property prices pushes emirate to last place in ranking of 56 locations
Residential property prices in Dubai declined 2.8% quarter-on-quarter and 12.2% in the year to June, according to Knight Frank, pushing the emirate into last place in the UK consultancy’s Global House Price Index.
Weaker demand, a strong US dollar and ongoing cooling measures were responsible for a dampening of sales volumes in the mainstream residential sector, Knight Frank said in a statement.
The year-on-year decline in prices placed Dubai behind Ukraine, Cyprus and Greece as having the steepest annual drop in property values. In Knight Frank’s previous report, Dubai ranked 53rd of the 56 countries listed.
The Global House Price Index rose by a mere 0.1% in the year to June, its weakest rate of growth since the fourth quarter of 2011. Of the 56 housing markets tracked by the consultancy, 27% recorded an annual decline in prices, as opposed to 44% in 2011.
Even with stringent cooling measures in place, Hong Kong and China were at opposite ends of the spectrum, with Hong Kong recording 20.7% growth, while China saw a 5.7% decline. Since the start of 2014, house prices in China have fallen on average by 6.2%.
“Increasing liquidity and the flow of wealthy mainland Chinese investors into Hong Kong’s residential sector meant the number of new homes sold in the first half of 2015 exceeded 8,700,” Knight Frank said.
Europe, which had been the world’s weakest performing region for 15 consecutive quarters, holds the title no more. On average prices across Europe increased by 2.8% year-on-year with Turkey, Estonia, Luxembourg and Ireland all achieving double-digit annual price growth.
