The global real estate market recovery, which began in 2009, is beginning to run out of steam, it has been claimed. According to Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, there is a growing body of evidence highlighting the setback.
Mr Bailey explained that the critical driver of this weaker recent performance is the number of countries tipping back into negative growth in the most recent quarter.
"Nearly 30 per cent of countries which had experienced strengthening conditions in 2010 saw quarterly price growth turn negative in the third quarter. Led by European markets the list includes Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia and the UK," he added.
Outside of Europe, Mr Bailey said that the list extends to cover China, Canada, Columbia, Dubai, New Zealand, South Africa and Taiwan.
The comments come after Knight Frank announced that its latest Global House Price Index found that average annual global house price growth in the third quarter was 3.1 per cent. The strongest world region was found to be Asia Pacific with average growth of 9.9 per cent, and the weakest was Europe at 0.8 per cent.