Global property markets have had an amazing year. House prices have surged across the globe, with the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific specially strong.
Despite the pandemic, housing markets are booming like never before. Real house prices (i.e., prices adjusted for inflation) rose in 43 out of the 55 world’s housing markets which have so far published housing statistics, during the year to Q3.
Strong house price surges have taken place in European countries, such as Turkey, Germany, Slovak Republic, Austria, and The Netherlands.
Asia-Pacific is gathering pace, with notable performances from Vietnam, New Zealand, and Taiwan.
The U.S., despite being the new epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, is seeing its house price boom markedly strengthening. The S&P/Case-Shiller seasonally-adjusted national home price index rose by 5.51% during the year to Q3 2020 (inflation-adjusted), sharply up from the previous year’s 1.46% growth.
The strongest housing markets in our global house price survey during the year to Q3 2020 included: Turkey (+13.96%), Vietnam (+13.83%), New Zealand (+13.77%), Germany (+12.44%), and Slovak Republic (+10.1%), using inflation-adjusted figures.
The biggest y-o-y house price declines were in Egypt (-22.31%), Montenegro (-21.99%), Cambodia (-7.88%), Dubai, UAE (-4.88%), and Saudi Arabia (-3.51%), again using inflation-adjusted figures.
Momentum is stronger: 34 of the world’s housing markets for which figures are available showed stronger upward momentum during Q3 2020, while only 21 housing markets showed weaker momentum, according to Global Property Guide’s research. Momentum is a measure of the “change in the change”; simply put, momentum has increased if a property market has risen faster this year than last (or fallen less).
Transaction volumes are rising again, in some countries strongly, boosted by record low interest rates and quantitative easing. Demand is strong for properties outside cities.
