Investments

Boom Or Bust Property Prices Still Grip Global Markets

Global house prices are rising – but property is not booming everywhere, says a new report from the International Monetary federation (IMF).

The latest report looking at residential markets across 57 countries for the first three months of the year puts prices into three categories.

The housing markets are booming in 22 countries, gloomy in 18 and gripped in a boom and bust cycle in the remaining 18.

There’s no continental trend as homes in countries sharing the same land mass are in different cycles.

Even within each country, local markets are rising or falling at different rates.

Markets moving at different speeds

Australia has seen a boom in house prices that is tailing off, says the IMF report, but the degree of cooling off is not the same in different cities.

The biggest rises were in Sydney and Melbourne, which are still seeing strong demand.

In another boom country, Austria, the average house price increased by 40% between 2007 and 2015.

The surge was fuelled by demand for homes in the capital Vienna, but the report judges prices in the city over inflated by a fifth or more, while those in the rest of the country are in line with expectations.

Turkey is another place where different cities are at different places on the property cycle.

Border unrest with Syria and Iraq have seen the cost of housing rapidly increase as refugees have flooded into the country from the south.

Where prices are booming

The IMF also explains that commercial property prices are strongly linked with the housing market.

In Australia, commercial property prices have risen rapidly, but rents have stayed static.

In Ireland, office prices have increased due to demand from overseas investors.

The IMF clusters the housing markets as:

  • Gloomy: Brazil, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain and The Ukraine
  • Boom and bust: Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Thailand, UK and USA
  • Boom: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan

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