SA property falls in global rankings

The rapid deceleration in house price growth in recent months has seen South Africa slip markedly in the global performance rankings.

UK-based Knight Frank’s latest Global House Price Index shows that South Africa ended the third quarter of 2010 in 22nd place, down from 6th position in the second quarter.

UK-based Knight Frank’s latest Global House Price Index released earlier this week shows that South Africa ended the third quarter of 2010 in 22nd place, down from 6th position in the second quarter. Knight Frank tracks price movements in 48 countries across the world.

According to the latest index, South Africa managed house price growth of an average 3% in the third quarter. That is significantly down from the 14,8% recorded in the second quarter (year-on-year).

However, it’s not only South Africa where the housing recovery has lost steam. Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, says a number of countries have even tipped back into negative growth in the past three months. A total of 14 mainly European countries saw negative growth in the third quarter after they had experienced several quarters of rising prices.

Bailey says there is a growing gap between the less debt-afflicted European economies of Austria, France and Finland who rank in the top 10 and their neighbours to the south and west of the continent like Greece, Spain and Ireland who rank in the bottom 10.

The world’s top performing housing market in the third quarter was Latvia in Eastern Europe with growth of 26,1%. Ireland ended the third quarter at the bottom of Knight Frank’s global house price rankings with negative growth of -14,8%. The report shows that in Dublin declines of up to 50% have been recorded over the past two years.

Bailey says although there is some good news in that for the first time since late 2008 prices are rising in each of the six world regions -- Asia-Pacific is up 9,9%, the Middle East 5,1%, North America 4,2%, South America 3,5%, Africa 3% and Europe 0,8% -- the headlines don’t tell the full story.

Says Bailey: “Digging into the data we can see that there are still considerable issues playing out across global housing markets. While a majority of countries are reporting positive annual growth, 56% saw prices fall in the third quarter of this year.”

Bailey notes there is growing evidence that the global housing recovery, which began in early 2009 following desperate conditions in 2007 and 2008, may just be beginning to run out of steam. Nearly 30% of countries that experienced strengthening conditions in early 2010 saw quarterly price growth turn negative in the third quarter. - Joan Muller