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Latvia still top property investment location

Friday, 8 June 2007 12:00 AM

Latvia is still the top property investment location for house price growth, new research shows.

Knight Frank's global residential house price survey reveals house prices in the eastern European country's capital Riga have risen 61.2 per cent in a year.

This compares with a global average of 9.6 per cent.

"Latvia still tops the world price growth list, however it appears that recently the number of transactions (particularly apartments) in Riga has begun to slow," Knight Frank explained.

"Around 1,200 transactions occurred in February, compared to 1,600 in January."

However, Riga is not the only Latvian city seeing massive price increases. Knight Frank finds house prices in Sigulda were up five per cent in March 2007.

Among the two most popular overseas investment locations - France and Spain - annual house price growth remained steady at 7.7 and 7.2 per cent respectively.

"While Germany's market appears to be performing relatively poorly, the latest quarterly data suggest that there has been a turn around in the fortunes of the German market and while prices now may be lower than at the same point 12 months ago, prices compared to the last quarter of 2006 have actually risen by 1.8 per cent," Knight Frank noted.

It added growth in a number of Western European markets has slowed, particularly in Ireland and Denmark, "marking a return to more sustainable rates of growth from the 15 and 24 per cent growth seen in these countries respectively to quarter one 2006".

In the US, Knight Frank reports house price inflation has "picked up slightly" after last year's slump at the end of last year.

Knight Frank global annual house price index: Q1 2006 - Q1 2007
1 Latvia (Riga) 61.20%
2 Estonia (Tallinn) 24.50%
3 Bulgaria 22.60%
4 Lithuania (Vilnius) 21.70%
5 Norway 16.40%
6 South Africa 13.60%
7 Singapore 13.50%
8 Canada 12.60%
9 UK 11.00%
10 Belgium 8.80%
11 Australia 8.60%
12 New Zealand 8.20%
13 Netherlands 8.00%
14 France 7.70%
15 Ireland 7.60%
16 Spain 7.20%
17 Austria 6.10%
18 Indonesia 5.50%
19 China 5.50%
20 Finland 5.20%
21 US 4.70%
22 Denmark 4.70%
23 Hungary 3.80%
24 Hong Kong 2.70%
25 Greece 2.60%
26 Portugal 1.20%
27 Sweden -0.30%
28 Germany -1.50%
29 Japan -1.50%
30 Switzerland -3.90%

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