Manila, Philippines, continued to lead residential property price growth in the first quarter of 2020, according to the Global Residential Cities Index from Knight Frank released Tuesday.
Manila, which has now reigned in the top spot for price growth for two consecutive quarters, saw its property prices rise 22% annually in the first three months of the year, the real estate agents and consultants said.
The index tracks housing prices in 150 cities using official government statistics or central bank data. Of the cities in the index, 85% saw prices increase year-on-year in the first quarter.
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The data in the report covers the three months to March 31, when Covid-19 was at its peak in parts of Asia but had yet to take its toll on large parts of Europe, North or South America, Knight Frank said.
Budapest, Hungary, and Izmir, Turkey, were tied for second in the ranking after each recorded price growth of 16.3%.
The two were followed by Ankara, Turkey, with growth of 14.8%, and Zagreb, Croatia, which logged price gains of 14.7% in the first quarter, according to the report.
The average growth across all 150 cities was 4.3%.
Though the index’s overall performance may not change significantly going ahead, “we do expect the city rankings to look very different in six-to-12 months’ time,” Kate Everett-Allen, Knight Frank’s head of International Residential Research, said in the report. “Markets that have been effective in containing the pandemic, and where lockdowns were short-lived,” will be “most likely to show more resilience.”
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In the U.S., Phoenix and Seattle led in price growth, up 8.1% and 6.9%, respectively.
London and Manchester ranked top in the U.K., both recording price growth of 4.6%.
Abu Dhabi trailed at the bottom of the index after witnessing prices fall 8.6% in the first quarter.