Global home price rise slows: BIS

Even before interest rates began rising, the growth in global housing prices was starting to slow, according to new data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

Global house prices rose 4.6% in the fourth quarter of 2021, down a bit from 5.4% in the previous quarter, the BIS reported.

Even so, on an annual basis, global housing prices rose at their highest rate since the financial crisis, BIS noted. Worldwide, housing prices are now 27% above their post-crisis levels on average.

“Among the G20 economies, real prices have risen the most — by more than 50% since 2010 — in India, Canada, Germany, the United States and Turkey,” the BIS said.

Indeed, the advanced economies continued to lead the way in the fourth quarter, with prices up 8.1% to an average of 37% ahead of their post-crisis level.  But in emerging markets, prices only gained an average of 1.9%, and are up 19.2% since the financial crisis, the BIS said.

Within emerging markets, there was also wide variation in price trends.

In the fourth quarter, house prices rose 11.4% in central and eastern Europe, the BIS said, while prices were flat in emerging Asia, and only gained 0.8% in Latin America.

The report also noted that the pandemic did nothing to dent the trend of rising house prices.

“Global residential prices appear to have gone from strength to strength since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic,” it said, noting that prices are up by about 15% since the end of 2019 in Canada, and up 20% in the U.S., along with other strong markets.