Housing markets around the world are recovering but real estate in many countries is still overvalued, according to the latest global house price index from the International Monetary Fund.
The index increased in the second quarter of 2013 to its highest level since the end of 2008, propelled by stronger residential real estate markets from Turkey to Hong Kong and recording the sixth quarterly rise in a row, Propertywire.com reported.
Leading the growth was Hong Kong where prices increased by 14.6 per cent compared with the second quarter of 2012. Prices in Ukraine increased by 11.7 per cent; by 10per cent in the Philippines and by 8.8 per cent in New Zealand and Colombia.
The weakest housing markets were in Hungary, Netherlands and Greece all of which saw prices fall by 11 per cent.
In other key markets, the United States saw prices rise by 6.1 per cent, and overall house prices rose in 32 of the 51 advanced and emerging market economies in the IMF’s Global House Price Index, compared with increases in nine countries in the second quarter of 2009, when the housing crisis was in full swing.