Hong Kong maintains its position as the world’s most expensive residential city, while the Spanish property boom is reflected in strong house price and rental growth in Barcelona and Madrid, according to research by CBRE.

In the fifth annual Global Living report, CBRE profiles the residential property markets across 35 key global cities. The results highlight that investments in urban areas such as transport infrastructure, connectivity, retail, cultural centres and housing are key drivers of economic growth.

Global Living: Top 10 Highest Value Locations

Global Living: Top 10 Cities for House Price Growth

The top three most expensive places to buy a residential property are once again in Asia. Hong Kong remains the city with the highest value residential real estate, with an average property costing $1.235m ($2,091 per sq ft). Singapore remains in second place, averaging $874,372 ($1,063 per sqft), and Shanghai is third at $872,555 ($714 per sq ft). As observed in last year’s report, all these cities have introduced cooling measures to keep prices under control.

Average house prices are growing in 30 out of 35 cities CBRE looked at for the report. The biggest year on year growth was experienced in double-digits by Barcelona (16.9%), Dublin (11.6%), Shanghai (11.2%) and Madrid (10.2%). London remains one of the top ten performing global cities, with the average property price of $646,973, ($776 per sq ft) although growth was down to 1.1%.

Jennet Siebrits, Head of Residential Research at CBRE UK, comments:

“House prices increased year on year across 30 out of the 35 cities we looked at, although generally at lower rates than previously. In general, we are seeing house price growth slow across our cities as we move towards the end of a long property cycle. We would expect increasing interest rates to be affecting cities in the US, and various cooling measures affecting the Asia Pacific region, although Shanghai still saw robust growth.

“Six out of the ten cities with the highest house price growth are in Europe. Three of these, Barcelona, Madrid, and Dublin, all suffered severe price falls in prices during the financial crisis and took much longer to recover from the economic downturn that followed. Now they are recovering they are showing significant growth. In comparison, London recovered much faster after the downturn and is now further into the cycle.”

The research also highlights considerable rental growth in many European cities, including Lisbon, Madrid, Dublin and Barcelona. Supply constraints and increasing demand were among the factors leading to Lisbon and Madrid’s continuing double digit rental growth.

Jennet Siebrits comments:

“Six European cities feature in the top ten for rental growth, including London. These cities are all facing increasing demand and a fundamental lack of supply. In addition, three Canadian cities feature in the top ten - Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal - driven by strong employment growth and low vacancy rates.”

Read the full report here