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Revealed: The World's top market

Jaimie Kanwar

A new report has revealed the World's most lucrative property market...

According to a compilation of official and private-sector statistics by the Global Property Guide.  Shanghai, China was the world's strongest residential property market during the past full year, achieving growth of 35.4%. Bulgaria (up 34.6%) was in second place, followed by Slovakia (up 32.5%) and Singapore (31.1%).

Asia-Pacific's strong performance was led by China, Singapore (31.2%), Hong Kong (25%), the Philippines (15.2%), and Japan (8.4%).  In most cases, this was due to strong economic growth.

A spokesperson for Global Property Guide commented: “Price rises in Japan have now paused.  Outside the US and Europe, Japan has been the hardest hit by the credit crunch. In March, Reicof, a listed property investor, failed with debts of Y42.6 billion (US$422 million).

“Deals are now being postponed, and the credit squeeze is hitting private real estate funds, which tend to be highly leveraged, and have borrowed mainly from foreign banks.  These private funds are finding it hard to refinance and are being forced to unload property.

“Hong Kong surged ahead this past year (up 25%), but transaction levels have now fallen sharply, despite declines in interest rates in line with the US. Singapore's residential market is still holding steady, but last year's euphoria seems to be over. 

“In both Hong Kong and Singapore prices are high by most yardsticks and there are low rental returns, usually a harbinger of price weakness”.