Latvian house prices decline the most worldwide on recession
26.11.2009, 11:00Latvian house prices fell 59.7% in the third quarter from a year earlier, the steepest drop among 30 markets surveyed worldwide, according to Global Property Guide.
“The house price falls in several countries have been much larger than house price rises anywhere, and include unprecedentedly severe falls” in Latvia, the United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, Iceland, Russia and Slovakia, the publishers of the report said, citing inflation-adjusted data.
House prices in much of eastern Europe are falling after the global financial crisis choked off credit flows and sapped export demand, bringing an end to a lending and property boom. Latvia’s economy contracted 18.4% in the third quarter, the biggest decline in the European Union, and is surviving with the help of a 7.5 billion-euro loan from a group led by the European Commission and IMF.
“The world seems polarized between the Asian economies, which are enjoying strong economic growth and high residential property price rises (Thailand excepted), and eastern Europe and the U.A.E., where growth has stalled and property markets have crashed,” the Global Property Guide said.