Australia climbs to 20th on Knight Frank house price index
Australia's climb in house prices saw it move to 20th position in the Knight Frank’s Global House Price Index – Q1 2017.
In Q4 2016 Australia was in 37th position in with annual capital growth of 3.5 percent, with its 20th position ranking in Q1 2017 recording annual growth of 7.7 percent.
According to the index, eleven countries recorded double-digit growth in the year ending March 2017.
Michelle Ciesielski, Knight Frank head of residential research, Australia said rather than global performance being purely driven by positive growth, the rise has been accompanied by an increase in the number of countries seeing double-digit annual price growth.
“The momentum in house price growth picked up in late 2016 for Sydney and Melbourne, and this flowed through to dominate the uptick in the national result.
“Australia last saw annual double-digit annual growth in Q4 2015, when house prices grew 10.7 percent as Australia ranked in 4th position.
“Since this time, the ability to source lending finance has tightened for both local and foreign investors, mortgage interest rates have increased despite the official cash rate falling 50 basis points to currently stand at 1.50 percent.
“We also saw application fees for foreign buyers being introduced and state-based surcharges on stamp duty were increased in Victoria, and rolled out in NSW and Queensland,” said Ms Ciesielski.
