New figures would suggest that the global real estate price recovery is faltering, with a significant number of countries experiencing negative growth during the third quarter of 2010.
Knight Frank reports that, on average, home values around the globe have increased by 3.1 per cent so far this year. The strongest growth has come from the Asia Pacific region at 9.9 per cent, while Europe has been the weakest so far at 0.8 per cent.
And although the rate is up substantially on the -6.2 per cent seen during the corresponding period of 2009, it remains below the 4.3 per cent posted in the second quarter of 2010.
According to Knight Frank, this slowdown can be attributed to the fact that a number of countries have slipped back into negative growth during the most recent quarter.
Some 14, mostly European, countries saw negative growth after they had experienced several quarters of rising prices. In the previous quarter 67 per cent of all countries saw positive annual growth, but only 46 per cent experienced growth in the most recent quarter, the consultant said.