27 December, KUALA LUMPUR: According to Knight Frank’s Global Residential Cities Index 3Q2018 report which was released yesterday, the 0.6% decline in Kuala Lumpur’s housing prices is compared to the year before (3Q2017).
Knight Frank’s Index tracks the movement in mainstream residential prices across 150 cities worldwide using official government statistics or central bank data. Globally, residential property prices rose by 4.5% on average with 123 cities recording price increases over the 12-month period.
Kuala Lumpur joins other first-tier cities that registered overall declines such as London (-0.3%), Melbourne (-1.5%) and Shanghai (-0.2%). The report also ranks Malaysia’s capital in the 129th position out of 150 global cities.
It was quoted in the report, “A mix of economic stagnation, high rates of new supply and affordability constraints are contributing to softening prices in a number of these urban markets”.
Nevertheless, the Asia Pacific region in overall performed better. On average prices across Asia Pacific cities increased 6.2% over the
12-months to September 2018, up from 3.3% a year ago.
Six Asian cities were part of the Top 10 best-performing cities, of which four are in India – Xi’an (1st), Ahmedabad (2nd), Hyderabad (4th), Bengaluru (5th), Hong Kong (7th) and Surat (9th).