The first quarter saw prices for high-end homes fall in many cities across the globe as the coronavirus pandemic brought some markets to near standstills, but others saw prices still rise.
A Knight Frank report on luxury home prices found that prices fell year-over-year in the first quarter in New York, Beijing, London, and Vancouver, according to Bloomberg. Nairobi, Kenya and Bangkok saw the most drastic slides of more than four percent.
The economic effects of the pandemic are expected to show more drastically in the second quarter, especially in the countries like the U.S., which didn’t see lockdowns until late March.
The quarter-over-quarter performance of Asian cities might provide a look at what’s in store for other markets in the near future. All five of the cities that recorded the weakest growth from the fourth quarter of 2019 were in Asia.
Some cities still posted gains, however. Prices rose more than 14 percent year-over-year in Manila, while Taipei and Stockholm saw gains upward of 8 percent. Guangzhou, China saw price rise more than 6 percent, despite the coronavirus’ grip on the country in the first quarter.
Knight Frank predicts that sales volume will see a “marked drop” in the second quarter because of travel restrictions and government office closures. [Bloomberg] — Dennis Lynch