Turkey is World's Top Home Price Appreciation Country, Again

International property consultant Knight Frank is reporting this week that Turkey leads their quarterly global home price appreciation index for the third consecutive quarter of 2020 with annual price growth of 27%.

However, in real terms once inflation of 14% is deducted, annual price growth sits closer to 13% in Q3 of 2020. Overseas interest from the Middle East and a buoyant economy are bolstering prices, GDP increased 16% in Q3 compared to Q2.

New Zealand (15%) jumped from 11th to second place between Q2 and Q3 as the country saw demand increase post-lockdown. Residential sales totaled 8,618 in Q3 2020, up 41% from 6,112 a year earlier.

Ukraine (10%) and Russia (9%) have also moved up the annual rankings and now sit within the top ten.

With many housing markets frozen in Q2, some saw a sharp rebound in sales and prices in Q3 (New Zealand, UK and the US), others witnessed only a marginal impact on pricing (China, France, Germany), and finally some have seen price growth move into negative territory (Hong Kong, Singapore and Spain).

Markets such as the UK, New Zealand and some Indian cities had an additional boost either in the form of a stamp duty holiday or relaxed mortgage lending rules. Overall, the index continues to post annual growth of between 4% and 5.5% as it has done since early 2017 but the percentage of markets registering a fall in prices year-on-year is climbing, up from 2% in Q1 2020 to 16% in Q3 2020.

Knight Frank further reports Ireland, Spain, India and Hong Kong are amongst those countries and territories witnessing the weakest price growth year on-year.