Home prices in cities across Asia-Pacific shot up in the past year

Home prices in more than a half-dozen major cities across Asia Pacific, including Beijing, Auckland and Tokyo, jumped up by double-digit percentiles over the last year.

Cheap mortgages and strong demand are driving up prices, much as in the U.S. and around the globe, according to CNBC. Topping the list was Auckland, New Zealand, where prices surged 25 percent in June from a year ago. New Zealand considered to be at high risk of a bubble.

Prices rose 14.8 percent in Beijing, where concern about a bubble prompted Chinese regulators earlier this year to limit mortgages and loans to developers, many of which are heavily leveraged.

Prices outside Singapore’s central region were up 13.9 percent, while the Japanese cities of Osaka and Tokyo had 13.5 percent and 12.6 percent year-over-year increases, respectively. Prices in Seoul jumped 12.5 percent.

Average annual growth across the region was 6.4 percent year-over-year, the biggest increase in four years.

In some parts of the U.S., signs are mounting that the frenzied market is slowing down, in part because high prices are driving away buyers.

[CNBC] — Dennis Lynch