The Global Residential Cities Index was recently released by Knight Frank. The Index tracks the movement in mainstream residential prices across 150 cities worldwide using official statistics.

In Q3 2019, Budapest reclaimed its title as the city with the fastest-rising house prices globally. The capital of Hungary saw residential prices accelerate by 24% in the year to September 2019 driven by low mortgage rates, strong employment and economic growth. Budapest has been the fastest rising property market globally for three of the last four quarters. 

Overall, the index’s performance is moderating however. At 3.2%, the index increased at its weakest annual rate since the second quarter of 2015. Yet despite this, more than 78% of the 150 cities tracked by the Index registered either flat or rising prices over the 12-month period. 

Knight Frank reports: “In short, prices are rising across more cities but at a slower rate. Analysis of the top performing city over the last three years backs up this trend. Three years ago annual growth of 40% was not unusual, but in the last year the frontrunners are closer to 20%.

“Key movers this quarter include Warsaw (13%) and Athens (12%), which now sit within the top ten rankings and the strong performance of a number of Central and Eastern European cities such as Zagreb (15%), Bratislava (10%) and Tallinn (8%).