Hong Kong housing prices soared 15% in the year through March, the fastest appreciations in Knight Frank’s Global Housing Price Index, published Thursday.
The densely populated city-state often records some of the most expensive sales in the world in addition to rapid overall price growth despite government cooling measures, which have included increased taxes on foreign buyers. This is the first time Hong Kong has led Knight Frank’s quarterly index since 2015, though it has held the top spot 10 times since the brokerage started the index in 2008.
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Hong Kong’s smaller units, with one and two bedrooms, are seeing the fastest price growth amid a shortage of available units, according to the report, which does not break out luxury data.
Islands Malta, in the Mediterranean, and tax-haven Jersey also face housing shortages, which have forced prices up by double digits over the past year. Based on asking prices, Malta has seen homes appreciate 13.6%, putting it No. 2 in the first quarter. Jersey, ranked five, saw price growth of 12.1%.
Meanwhile, most European housing markets are in full recovery mode from the depths of the global credit crisis in the late oughts and early 2010s.
"Eleven of the 15 strongest performing housing markets globally were in Europe at the end of March," said Kate Everett-Allen of Knight Frank’s international residential research in the report.
Ireland ranked fourth on the index as an economic boom pushes the housing market forward. Prices there appreciated 12.7% in the year through March, according to the report.
The European recovery wasn’t uniform, however, with a few countries recording negative price growth in the first quarter. Ukraine, where prices fell 3.9%, was second to last. Only Peru, where prices fell 4.2%, was worse on the list of 57 countries.
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Housing markets also faltered in Italy, Finland, Norway and Greece.
Globally, the spread between price growth and declines is narrowing, potentially a sign of weakening buyer sentiment "as the shift towards tighter monetary policy and the removal of stimulus becomes a reality in key global economies," the brokerage said.