Indian cities have the world's fastest-growing property prices

India's mainstream residential property values appreciated swiftly in the second quarter of the year, according to the latest quarterly Knight Frank Global Residential Cities Index.

Three of the index’s top 10 consisted of Indian cities, led by Ahmedabad where the average value of property soared 19.4 percent year-on-year in June.

Hyderabad property values also gained 16 percent on average, the third highest worldwide, while those of Pune surged 13.5 percent.

“The Indian economy grew by 8.2 percent in the year to Q1 2018 and this is filtering through to housing demand and consumer confidence,” Knight Frank reported, citing official economic figures.

Trailing Ahmedabad in second place worldwide was the Turkish city of Izmir that recorded an annual growth of 16.2 percent. Hobart, Budapest, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Vancouver also occupied the top 10.

Asia was the strongest performer overall, with average property values in the region moving up 5.1 percent in the year to June. It edged out North America that posted a yearly growth of five percent.

A long-term strong performer on the index, Hong Kong (ranked sixth worldwide), saw its prices accelerate just 15.1 percent in the year to June — “a marginal slowdown” for the city, noted Knight Frank.

Banks in the Chinese SAR raised prime rates for the first time in 12 years last month, ending an era of cheap capital that has fuelled property prices. "Of those countries where a rate rise has taken place in 2018, a number have a significant gap between their strongest and weakest performing city," the report noted.

"With some already registering negative annual growth, we expect any further tightening of monetary policy to be slow and steady."

Knight Frank monitored the performance of 150 cities, of which 123 posted an annual hike in residential prices.

Ref: Property Report