Home prices rose 4.7% across the globe during Q2, though many countries haven’t yet reported their data, according to Knight Frank

Turkey led property price growth in the second quarter of 2020, a three-month window during which the coronavirus pandemic reached an apex across much of the world, according to a report Monday from Knight Frank.

The country leads in the ranking, with prices up 25% year-on-year, but the report notes that inflation in Turkey currently sits at around 12%.

On a global level, home prices rose 4.7% in the second quarter from last year. But more than half of the 56 countries and territories tracked by the estate agency and property consultants, including the U.S. and the U.K., have yet to report their figures for the second quarter, likely a direct result of coronavirus, Knight Frank said.

Despite the delay, “the data still offers a glimpse into the impact of Covid-19 with the number of countries and territories seeing a decline in prices on the rise again,” wrote Kate Everett-Allen, Knight Frank’s head of international residential research, in the report.

Annual price declines were recorded in 9% of countries and territories during the second quarter.

In comparison, during the first quarter of the year, before the pandemic had peaked in many locations, average home prices grew in all but one of the countries included in the index, the most uniformity in the direction of global house prices Knight Frank has ever recorded.

The impact of the pandemic on housing markets is expected to be “inconsistent and irregular,” according to the report.

New Zealand, Germany and South Korea—three countries that were initially considered to have navigated the pandemic most effectively—recorded a mixed bag of property price growth.

Germany has yet to report its second quarter figures; New Zealand slumped to 11th in the ranking from second place last quarter; and South Korea saw a 1.3% increase in price growth. 

Gains will be largely determined by the “state of the housing market prior to the pandemic, the length and severity of the lockdown and each country or territory’s reliance on international demand, which has dried up in recent months due to travel restrictions,” according to the report. 

Source: Mansion Global