KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 ― Kuala Lumpur property prices increased 5.1 per cent between the end of 2015 and end of last year, according to the latest survey by global property consultants Knight Frank released today.
The Knight Frank Global Residential Cities ranked the Malaysian capital 79th among 150 global cities in terms of property price appreciation, just behind Yantai in China and Los Angeles in the United States.
KL was also ahead of other US cities like Chicago and Spain’s Madrid.
Neighbouring Singapore crawled in at 140th place as its housing prices saw a 2.6 per cent depreciation rate, while the Indonesian capital of Jakarta in Indonesia appreciated slightly at 1.0 per cent, putting it at 115th spot.
Chinese cities saw the most appreciation elsewhere in the world, with nine Chinese cities making up the top 10. Nanjing from China topped the list at 41.1 per cent property price hike, while Moscow in Russia came at the bottom with a 15 per cent depreciation.
Knight Frank Malaysia managing director Sarkunan Subramaniam said that despite the weaker property market condition, house prices in Kuala Lumpur had continued on the “uptrend”.
He also said that the prices of residential properties in established areas are expected to continue to do well with moderate appreciation in prices, while predicting more rapid developments in areas surrounding new Light Rail Transit and Mass Rapid Transit stations.
House prices globally across all the listed cities increased by 6.6 per cent in 2016, which is the highest rate in three years.
However, the report said that if Chinese cities were to be excluded from the list, which has 49 Asia-Pacific cities, the global appreciation would only stand at 4.9 per cent.
