New Blog 2: Chart House Prices

Thursday 8 November 2012

Chart House Prices

AFTER years of dizzying ascents, a big dose of gravity has hit residential-property markets around the world. According to The Economist's latest round-up, year-on-year prices are now falling in 12 of the 21 countries we track; in five of the other nine, prices are rising at a slower rate than they were a year ago. The woes of European and American housing markets are very familiar; once-frothy Asian markets are also now subdued. Prices in Hong Kong are rising at a manageable 6% a year, as opposed to 28% a year just 12 months ago. Chinese prices fell year-on-year for the fifth month in a row in June. Indeed, so subdued is residential property at the moment that the list of the world's bounciest markets has an unusually Germanic flavour, with Austria, Switzerland and Germany all posting appreciable gains.