Worldwide view

Property prices in more than half the countries included in the Knight Frank Global House Price Index fell in the previous three months...

Annual global house price growth slowed further to 3.8 per cent during July to October 2008. Dubai was the only country (Emirate) to buck the trend but figures reflect Q2 and are felt not to reflect shift in balance of supply and demand.

Strong growth in 2007 means that two thirds of the Knight Frank index is still showing an annual increase but property prices in more than half the countries fell in the third quarter of 2008. ‘We expect that trend to continue with the vast majority of locations showing zero or negative growth by the end of the year,' says Nicholas Barnes, Head of International Research.

Some Eastern European countries and Russia were the only to perform reasonably well but prices in Bulgaria - a strong performer this year - grew by half the rate seen in the previous quarter.

‘Lithuania, Canada, the UK and Norway saw the biggest falls in Q3,' continues Mr Barnes, ‘The US remains at the bottom of the index and a further quarterly fall of 2.8 per cent means prices are now almost 21 per cent down from their peak.'

Top ten performers

Dubai
Slovakia
Russia
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Ukraine
Jersey
Hong Kong
Philippines
Colombia

Worst performing countries

Latvia
USA
Estonia
UK
Denmark
Ireland
Austria
New Zealand
Portugal
Germany

Source: Country Life