Prices for New York City’s most expensive pads remained flat in the first three months of the year, while high-end home prices exploded in competing global cities, according to Knight Frank’s Prime Global Cities Index.
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The index, which follows luxury residential property prices across 41 international cities and was released Monday, climbed 4 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2017. New York City came in at 22 on the index ranking, and saw an increase of just 1.7 percent from last year. In March, Knight Frank’s annual wealth report found New York City luxury prices slowed significantly in 2015, and that cities like Vancouver and San Francisco are now outpacing the Big Apple.
In London, a city often seen as the Big Apple’s biggest competitor for expensive home purchases, luxury prices fell by more than 6 percent. However, according to the report, quarterly growth was at its highest rate since May last year, indicating prices in the city are stabilizing.
Chinese cities saw the greatest increases. Guangzhou topped the ranking, with prices there jumping by more than 36 percent from last year. In Shanghai, prices increased almost 23 percent, while Beijing’s luxury sector saw an increase of 20 percent. Home prices across China, a country which produces 100,000 millionaires annually, according to 2017’s Knight Frank’s Wealth report, have surged in the past year, fueling concerns the market is overheated.
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Toronto, which placed third on the ranking, saw its luxury prices increase by more than 22 percent year-over-year, according to Knight Frank. In particular, the index showed cities with high numbers of technology businesses saw significant jumps. Seoul’s luxury prices, for example, grew by 18 percent, while Stockholm’s prices went up by 11 percent. Berlin and Melbourne’s high-end residential prices both jumped by 9 percent. The cities of Hong Kong (5%) and Singapore (4%) both rose up in the rankings, following years of minimal growth.