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Paris luxury-home prices rose the most in the world in the 12 months through March as buyers from emerging markets competed for a limited number of properties, Knight Frank LLP said.
Values of houses and apartments costing more than 2 million euros ($2.9 million) increased 22 percent in the French capital, Mark Harvey, a senior negotiator for the London-based property broker, said in an interview. Hong Kong was second with a 15 percent rise and Helsinki third with 12 percent. Shanghai and Beijing completed the top five.
Buyers from the group of Brazil, Russia, India and China “are increasingly looking to Paris as a safe haven to invest funds in a mature and high-performing market,” Liam Bailey, head of residential research, said in a statement. “Like London, supply is hindered by a paucity of new-build developments.”
Measures by Asian governments to curb property speculation appear to be working, with luxury-home prices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore growing 11 percent as a group in the first quarter compared with 55 percent a year earlier, Bailey said in the statement.
London prices gained 8.6 percent, putting the city in a tie for sixth with Singapore. Zurich followed with an 8 percent increase.
Los Angeles had a 2.2 percent decline and Moscow took the bottom spot on Knight Frank’s 15-member Global Cities Index, with prices contracting 8 percent. The index compares the performance of prime housing markets, defined as the top 5 percent to 10 percent of the mainstream market, in key global cities chosen by the broker.
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