Dubai topped the global annual rankings for growth in house prices for the fifth consecutive quarter ending June, recording annual price growth of 24 per cent, though this is down from 27.7 per cent in the year to March, a report said.

“The emirate’s mainstream market is outperforming the luxury end of the market due in part to the mortgage rules introduced by the UAE  Central Bank which are less restrictive for those buying residential property worth  below Dh5 million ($1.36 million),” said Kate Everett-Allen of International Residential Research at Knight Frank, a global real estate consultancy.

“Our index presents a mixed picture this quarter,” she said in Knight Frank’s Global House Price Index.

“The average rate of annual growth has slowed from 7.1 per cent in March to 5.2 per cent in June, but the rate of quarterly growth has picked up, rising from 0.6 per cent over the first quarter to 1.6 per cent in the second,” explained Everett-Allen.

More countries recorded a rise in house prices in the year to June than at any point since the start of the global financial crisis but Europe is still lagging behind, she noted.

“In Q3 2012 Ireland was in 54th position in our table of annual growth, Greece was the only country to perform worse at this time, but now Ireland finds itself ranked in third place with prices having increased by 12.5 per cent in the year to June,” Everett-Allen said.

The rate of growth in the US slowed in the second quarter with annual price growth of 6.2 per cent recorded in the year to June compared to 10.3 per cent in the year to March.

The overall trajectory of the Global House Price Index is upward with 40 of the 54 countries tracked by the index recording flat or rising prices on an annual basis. Two years ago only 31 countries fell into this bracket.

Despite the fact that more countries are seeing positive price growth, the gap between the strongest and weakest- performing housing markets has remained relatively constant in the last two years at 30-35 percentage points.

Countries at the bottom of the table are no longer recording double-digit annual price falls but those at the top are stretching further ahead. A few European countries have separated from the pack, and risen up the table in the last quarter suggesting a two-speed Europe is emerging, where Turkey, Ireland and the UK are the frontrunners, said Everett-Allen. – TradeArabia News Service