Global House Price Index rises 0.1 pct in year to June 2015: report

Global house prices rose only 0.1 percent in the 12 months leading up to June 2015, as lingering concerns over the eurozone and some emerging market economies weighed on the market, said a report released here Tuesday.

The report, authored by the London-based property agent Knight Frank, showed that in annual terms, the Global House Price Index rose by only 0.1 percent in the 12-month period to June, recording its weakest rate of growth since the final quarter of 2011.

Twenty-seven percent of the 56 housing markets tracked recorded an annual decline in prices, while 44 percent of housing markets fell into this bracket back in 2011.

Meanwhile, China's Hong Kong-led 56-economy house price ranking showed a 12-month increase of 20.7 percent, followed by Turkey (18.5 percent), Estonia (13.4 percent), Luxembourg (13.2 percent) and Ireland (10.9 percent), the data showed.

Increasing liquidity and the flow of wealthy investors from the Chinese mainland into Hong Kong's residential sector have contributed to the number of new homes sold in the first half of 2015 exceeding 8,700, the report said.

China, with a price decline of 5.7 percent, ranked 52nd on the list, while house prices in Greece, Cyprus, Ukraine and Dubai dropped by 5.9 percent, 6.5 percent, 12 percent and 12.2 percent respectively, the report said.

"As China supplants Greece as the world's key economic concern, and emerging markets look increasingly anemic, there is a global quest for growth which is evident at a macroeconomic level but also when analyzing house price performance," said Kate Everett-Allen, researcher at International Residential Research at Knight Frank.

As in Dubai, weaker demand along with a strong U.S. dollar and ongoing cooling measures have dampened sales volumes in the mainstream sector, Everett-Allen said.

Europe, however, is no longer the weakest-performing region, a title it has held for 15 consecutive quarters. The European average house price tracked by the report increased by 2.8 percent in the year to June 2015.

The Knight Frank Global House Price Index, established in 2006, allows investors and developers to monitor and compare the performance of mainstream residential markets around the world.

It is published quarterly and tracks the performance of mainstream national housing markets around the world using data from central banks and national statistics offices. Endi