Global property prices rose 4.6% in 2017, buoyed by price growth in 85% of the 59 countries tracked by Knight Frank in their latest Global House Price Index released Friday.
The moderate rate of growth—lower than the 5.3% property price increase that was logged in 2016—was reflected in the rankings as the gap between the strongest- and weakest-performing housing market narrowed.
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Despite their small size, Iceland and Hong Kong recorded the largest price growth of the countries analyzed by the London-based property consultants, logging gains of 15% and 14% respectively.
Europe was well represented at the top of the rankings, as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Serbia, Bulgaria and Latvia all joined Iceland in the top 10, registering gains of over 9%.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s plans to stop foreign buyers from purchasing existing homes has caused the country’s price growth to fall well below that of neighboring Australia. The two markets have largely mirrored each other for the past few years, the report said. But as Australia sits at 12th place, with a price growth of 8.3% year-on-year, New Zealand (3.2%), has dropped to 42nd place, just ahead of Spain (3.1%), but behind Macedonia (3.5%).
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Ukraine logged the weakest growth in 2017, dropping 5.1%, just behind Peru (-4.2%) and Russia (-3%).
The strong performance of Canada (8.9%) and the U.S. (6.3%) means North America led the seven regions examined in the report in 2017, recording an average price growth of 7.5%, while Africa followed second with gains of 6.1%.
Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States was the worst performing region, with prices falling on average by 4% in 2017.