Sydney is once again a standout global city for value growth in its prime residentialreal estate market, according to the latest Prime Global Cities Index from Knight Frank.
The quarterly report reveals that of 34 European, Asian, North American, African and Australasian cities indexed, Sydney came second only to Vancouver for quarterly and annual price growth in its top-tier property market for the September quarter.
Australia’s Harbour City saw a three-month increase of 3.6% and 12-month increase of 13.7% – one of only three cities, along with Vancouver and Shanghai, to record a double-digit annual price increase.
Sydney moved up a spot from the Q2 2015 index, overtaking Miami (though Q3 figures were not available for the Florida city).The index notes that “the weak Australian dollar, an undersupply of new homes and a strong local economy are behind Sydney’s accelerating prices”.
Melbourne’s high-end property market also recorded a quarterly increase of 3.6%, moving from 7th place on the index in Q2 to 5th in Q3. Melbourne started the year in 11th place and in August was named the world’s most liveable city for the fifth year in a row by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report.
Australasia was the world-leading region for the Prime Cities Global Index, with annual price growth of 11.6%, followed by North America.
The index went up by 1.9% overall in the year to September, a comparatively weak performance given a 7% growth rate two years ago. While Asian and European cities such as Shanghai, Jakarta, Bangkok, Seoul and Monaco performed well for the year, others such as Paris, Geneva and Moscow saw falls.
Singapore’s luxury residential real estate continues to struggle, rating as the weakest-performing market for the seventh consecutive quarter. The city-state saw an annual fall of 7.9% in the year to September.
Only around 73% of indexed cities recorded positive annual price growth in the year to September, compared with more than 90% two years ago.
The report also predicts that, despite the recent economic slowdown there, “wealth from China will continue to flow into overseas property markets with the UK, US, Canada and Australia being key target destinations”.