Aussie House Price Growth in Global Top 20

Australia has snagged a place in the world’s top 20 for house price growth for the year to June 2020, rising 37 spots from the year prior, new analysis has revealed. According to Knight Frank’s Global House Price Index, for the second quarter of 2020 Australian house price growth has grown 6.1 per cent since June last year. A year ago, Australia ranked 56th, or last, on Kight Frank’s index – but has now risen to 19th place as other countries buckle from the pandemic, with Australia’s property market holding up relatively well in comparison. Australia has dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic better than some other countries and territories around the world, with the length and severity of the lockdown not as strong, which partly explains its stable performance. However, it can also be attributable to the state of the housing market prior to the pandemic, with Australia’s market strong heading into 2020 with demand high and stock levels low. Australian house price growth is 1.4 per cent higher than the average annual price changes of 4.7 per cent across the other 56 countries in the index, she added. Turkey takes the top spot for the country on the index with the greatest house price growth in the last 12 months (25.7 per cent), followed by Luxembourg, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland. New Zealand ranked 11th on the list, falling from second place in the March quarter, with average house prices growing 9.1 per cent between June 2019 and June 2020. Canada trailed Australia at 5.9 per cent, while China and America’s house prices grew 4.9 per cent and 4.5 per cent, ranking 27th and 30th respectively. Hong Kong, which has been plagued with ongoing political tussles with China for years, ranked last on the list, with house price growth sliding by -2.8 per cent as residents looked to migrate to other countries.