KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — Malaysian house prices rose 8 per cent in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the same quarter last year.
According to the Knight Frank Global House Price Index released today, the rise in Malaysian house prices was 15th highest among 54 countries.
Dubai topped the annual rankings for the fourth consecutive quarter, having grown 27.7 per cent up to end March, Knight Frank said in a research note.
However, prices rose by 3.4 per cent in the first three months of 2014, as the doubling of transfer fees and mortgage cap had an impact on the Emirates property market.
Knight Frank head of research for the Asia Pacific, Nicholas Holt, said 14 countries recorded a decline in house prices year-on-year. Twelve of these were in Europe, with Singapore and Japan the only non-European countries.
“Cooling measures and tighter mortgage lending conditions have halted price growth in Singapore, while in Japan, ‘Abenomics’ has yet to push house price growth into positive territory,” he said.
He added: “We expect to see the index’s performance strengthen again in the second quarter. All eyes will remain on central banks, in particular the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.
“The issue is not when interest rates rise but the speed and extent to which they do.”
Overall, the Global House Price Index has risen for eight consecutive quarters but the rate of price growth slowed in the first three months of 2014. — Bernama
