The widespread drop in global house prices that hit advanced economies has largely petered out, according to a Financial Times analysis of OECD data, leading economists to predict that the deepest property downturn in a decade has hit a turning point. Across the 37 industrialised OECD countries, nominal house prices grew 2.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2023 compared with the previous three months, up from near stagnation at the start of last year.
While UK and the US mortgage rates have ticked up in February, they remain well below national peaks reached in 2023. House prices have held up best in the US, where solid economic and job growth helped nominal house prices to rise 5.2 per cent in the year to November. Germany, by contrast, where economic woes, property overvaluations and a large rental market weigh on the sector, saw a 10.2 annual contraction last year — the worst of the EU economies excluding Luxembourg.