Five Australian cities have ranked in the top 30 cities around the world for luxury residential price growth, according to the latest global research from Knight Frank.
The Knight Frank Prime Global Cities Index – Q3 2019, which tracks the movement in prime residential prices across 45 cities worldwide, revealed Sydney was ranked 17 for luxury price growth, followed by Melbourne (21), Brisbane (22), the Gold Coast (26) and Perth (30).
Sydney improved its global ranking and remains in the top spot for Australia, while Melbourne maintained its ranking from the previous quarter.
The Gold Coast, which was included in the report for the first time in Q2 2019, moved up the rankings to 26.
Knight Frank’s Head of Residential Research Australia Michelle Ciesielski said all four Australian cities recorded growth in luxury residential prices higher than the overall average annual prime price growth of 1.1 per cent across the 45 global cities in the 12 months leading up to the end of September this year.
“Whilst the Australian mainstream residential markets were progressively being corrected by tightened lending measures, the prime property market continued to experience positive growth given the prestige end of the market was less impacted by funding restrictions throughout this time,” Ms Ciesielski said.
“In fact, the major east coast cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast have now recorded 25 quarters, or more, of positive annual growth.”
She said the growth in prime property prices closely follows the performance on the stock exchange where there had been some significant gains made in Australia in 2019.
“Collectively the Australian prime market has continued to see sustainable growth of 2 per cent in the year ending September 2019, whilst the sharemarket recorded a 7.7 per cent return,” Ms Ciesielski said.
“With equities on an upward growth trajectory, its likely this will follow through to further growth in prime property prices.”
The Prime Global Cities Index increased by 1.1 per cent in the year to September 2019, down from 3.4 per cent in 2018, with slower prime price growth attributable to mounting economic headwinds.
Knight Frank’s Head of Prestige Residential Deborah Cullen said the top end of the current market showed more consideration and time in transacting.
“There is still strong interest from local and expat buyers for blue ribbon areas and for ‘best in class’ assets, in particular the waterfront areas of Sydney,” Ms Cullen said.
The report found Moscow was the city with the strongest rate of annual price growth globally, recording a 11 per cent 12-month increase, followed by Frankfurt (10.3 per cent), Taipei (8.9 per cent), Manila (7.4 per cent) and Berlin (6.5 per cent).
