[CitizensTruth] House price crash goes global

[Daniel Stafford]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/sep/02/houseprices.property?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

(** A GLOBAL bubble?? Curiouser and curiouser. George, whose been 
pulling your strings?? Or, should I say...chain? - D **)

    * Money <http://www.guardian.co.uk/money>
    * House prices <http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/houseprices>


  House price crash goes global

    * Patrick Collinson
      <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/patrickcollinson>
    * guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>,
    * Tuesday September 02 2008 12:40 BST
    * Article history

Riga Town, Latvia

Latvia: House prices have dropped by 24.1% over the past 12 months

The property <http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/property> crash that began 
in the US is spreading across the globe, according to international 
estate agents Knight Frank, which said today that steep declines are now 
taking place across Europe and into Asia.

The country recording the sharpest fall is Latvia, where house prices 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/houseprices> have plummeted 24.1% over 
the past year. New Zealand, Denmark and Lithuania have all seen falling 
prices, along with Malta, Germany, Ireland, Estonia, Britain and the US.

Even countries where prices have not fallen are witnessing a rapid 
deceleration in price growth.

In South Africa the rate of house price inflation has collapsed from 
15.5% this time last year to 3.8%, and is expected to be negative soon. 
In France, Spain and Greece price growth has halved and is running below 
3.2%.

The only countries to have bucked the trend are Bulgaria, Slovakia, 
Cyprus and the Czech Republic, where house price growth has accelerated.

Last year's fastest growing market, Russia, which was seeing house price 
growth at an astonishing 53.7% in the second quarter of 2007, has 
dropped back to 26.5%.

Nick Barnes, head of international research at Knight Frank, said: "The 
index shows that global house price inflation is continuing to fall 
back, with much of continental Europe now seeing low or negative growth.

"Housing markets in countries such as Spain, Denmark, the UK and Ireland 
are all being severely challenged by the global credit squeeze."


    Long-term decline

Globally, the rate of house price growth fell to 4.8% in the second 
quarter of 2008, down from 6.1% in the first quarter of the year.

Several countries are now entering their second year of house price 
declines. Among the worst hit is Germany, where prices were falling at a 
rate of 4.4% last year and 2.5% this year.

"There is less demand for owner-occupied property in Germany than in 
many other European countries and there is no shortage of supply," said 
Barnes.

In Spain, the Knight Frank index recorded a price rise of 2.4% annually, 
but it warned that falls are now almost inevitable.

"The well-publicised problems in Spain have not yet fed into house price 
statistics. So far, price falls have been concentrated in the coastal 
resorts and among new developments in the large cities," said Barnes.

"Spain looks likely to fall into recession later this year, and house 
sales fell steeply during June. The number of sales dropped by 34.2% in 
May and 29.6% in June, suggesting that wider price falls could be imminent."

But investors who bought second homes in Bulgaria have reason to feel 
bullish. Knight Frank said current annual price growth is 32.2%, only 
slightly lower than the 33.7% rate recorded in the first quarter.


    Biggest fallers: Year-on-year house price change to Q2 2008

Latvia -24.1%
United States -16.8%
Estonia -16%
Lithuania -9.9%
Denmark -9.6%
Ireland -8.1%
UK -3.9%
Malta -2.7%
Germany -2.5%
New Zealand -2.2%


      About this article

Close


  House price crash goes global

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/> on Tuesday September 02 2008. It was last 
updated at 12:40 on September 02 2008.

    * Print thisPrintable version
      <http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/sep/02/houseprices.property/print>
    * Send to a friendSend to a friend
      <http://www.guardian.co.uk/email/337209261>
    * Share thisShare <http://www.guardian.co.uk/share/337209261>
    * Clip thisClip
      <http://www.guardian.co.uk/users/clippings/add?r2PageId=1077952>
    * Contact usContact us <http://www.guardian.co.uk/contactus/337209261>
    * Resize font larger <http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/accessibility>
      | smaller <http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/accessibility>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/citizenstruth/attachments/20080902/3687771c/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: OldTownLatvia4.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 15357 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/citizenstruth/attachments/20080902/3687771c/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_print.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 576 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/citizenstruth/attachments/20080902/3687771c/attachment-0006.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_email-friend.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 573 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/citizenstruth/attachments/20080902/3687771c/attachment-0007.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_share.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 626 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/citizenstruth/attachments/20080902/3687771c/attachment-0008.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_clip.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 608 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/citizenstruth/attachments/20080902/3687771c/attachment-0009.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_email-us.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 606 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/citizenstruth/attachments/20080902/3687771c/attachment-0010.gif>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_font.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 185 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/citizenstruth/attachments/20080902/3687771c/attachment-0011.gif>