New Delhi: India witnessed the third highest rise of 12 percent globally in housing prices in January- March quarter of 2012 over the year-ago period, according to consultant Knight Frank.
Housing prices in India, however, declined by 0.9 percent when compared with the previous quarter.
"Brazil recorded the strongest annual growth (23.5 percent) and Ireland the weakest (minus 16.3 percent)," it said.
The Knight Frank Global House Price Index monitors and compare the performance of 53 mainstream residential markets across the world.
Estonia ranked second with an annual growth rate of 13.9 percent, Austria ranked fourth with 11 percent rise in housing prices, followed by Germany (9.8 percent), Colombia (9.6 percent), Turkey (8.7 percent), Russia (8.2 percent), Iceland (7.3 percent) and Canada (6.8 percent).
In China, the prices have declined by 2.2 percent.
"The Chinese housing market has had a tough 12 months as developers and purchasers alike have had bank finance squeezed as a consequence of the ongoing cooling measures.
"Lending restrictions, new taxes, the curbing of multiple property purchases, and new regulations to restrict the inward flow of hot foreign money have had the desired effect," Knight Frank's Director of Research in Asia Pacific Nicholas Holt said.
The report further said that during the first quarter of 2012, the housing prices fell in 58 percent of the countries monitored by the index.
Knight Frank's report noted that the Global House Price Index recorded its weakest annual performance since the depths of the recession in 2009, recording only 0.9 percent growth in the year to March 2012.
"Doubts over the Eurozone's future, along with the Asian governments staunch efforts to cool their markets and deter speculative investment, have taken their toll," it explained.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, June 06, 2012, 12:54