The Fastest Growing Real Estate Markets

Throughout the past few years, property prices in cities across the world have greatly escalated. Realizing the vast potential of international real estate markets, wealthy buyers are flocking to metropolitan cities to grab their share of lucrative investments. In order to determine the most thriving real estate markets, real estate developer Solly Assa analyzed the average price of more than 50,000 listings across the globe and came up with the following data.

Prices in South China have jumped by almost 50%, which is more than anywhere else in the world. House prices in Shenzhen, the heart of the technology manufacturing hub of China, near Hong Kong – also known as the "Chinese Silicon Valley" – jumped by 70% last year, which is the highest rise in real estate prices ever recorded.

Shenzhen has become the center for electronic devices hardware production. The city has a permanent population of 10 million people, which swells all the way to 15 million during the summer months. This city, however, didn’t even exist 30 years ago. In 1979, China declared this area as a special economic zone and surrounded it with an 85-mile, barbed-wire fence. Investments and workers overflew the place, building the factories on bare ground. By the mid-nineties, the population jumped to 3 million.

A new real estate market survey put Shenzhen and Hong Kong at the very top of the world’s list of high-priced real estate, despite the poor performance of the Chinese stock market throughout the previous year.

Another survey conducted by real estate experts, including Solly Assa, showed that the financial crisis in Greece has made a devastating impact on the country’s property prices. House prices in Greece’s two biggest cities, Thessaloniki and Athens, rank among the lowest real estate performances over the previous year. Mr. Assa also noted some serious decline of property prices in the following Italian cities: Rome, Trieste, and Genoa. Cyprus, Nicosia and Larnaca have also recorded poor results.

Overall, real estate prices are generally stable. Last year, the real estate sector noted a 4.4% growth. In addition to Shenzhen, real estate prices in Auckland increased by 25.4%, followed by Istanbul which measured at 25% growth. Along with Istanbul, Izmir also made its way to the list of most attractive places for real estate investments. These Turkish cities continue to grow in popularity. Real estate prices in Budapest rose by 16.3%, mostly because of Chinese investor’s growing interest in the city.

At the very bottom of the table stands the Indian city Chandigarh with the biggest decline in real estate prices. This city’s population is more than 1 million and is considered the richest city in India. While conducting this survey, Solly Assa concluded that there is a big difference between price fluctuations in urban and rural settlements. About 54% of the world's population currently lives in cities. As the world doubles its population throughout the next thirty years, the pressure for finding new living locations will only increase.