According to a recent global property report from prestigious real estate company Knight Frank, whilst the general global trend for house prices is for a continuing fall, Estonia is bucking this trend and seeing rising prices.
Written by Kate Everett-Allen, the report referred to Knight Frank’s own Global House Price Index (GHPI), where Estonia saw the second highest property price rise in the world y-o-y between December 2010 and December 2011 with a 12.3 per cent GHPI rise (only Brazil was higher) and, whilst more recent rises have been more modest, it is still well ahead of many countries, and much of Europe in particular.
The 6 month GHPI figure stood at 4.4 per cent rise (only Germany was higher at 5 per cent, and Ireland saw a drop of -9 per cent over the same period) and the 3 month period GHPI stood at 1.1 per cent (compared with – 1.1 per cent for the UK).
Whilst the slowdown in China and other Asian countries, not to mention North America, has had its effect on the index, Europe stands as the worst affected region with all 12 bottom spots being occupied by European countries, which makes the Estonian ‘blip’ all the more surprising. In addition to Germany, the only other European countries to have seen an increase are Iceland, Norway and Switzerland; naturally the continuing Eurozone crisis has taken its toll.
60 per cent of countries polled saw a drop in prices over the final quarter of 2011. In addition to the Eurozone crisis and other global economic uncertainty, the report also cited stricter mortgage lending requirements and falling consumer confidence.
“If ..[the] .. trend spreads to more locations, the overall GHPI could easily slip into negative territory during 2012, especially if the slowdown in Asia continues”, the report stated.
Knight Frank is a truly global, high quality commercial and residential real estate agent with a presence in 43 countries worldwide. The original report is available here.
Andrew Whyte
Tallinn Property by Goodson & Red
