Dubai has risen to the top of the latest global house price index rankings.

Knight Frank, an international real estate consultancy company, has announced that their Global House Price Index has risen for eight consecutive quarters in the first three months of 2014. However, the pace of price rise has slowed. apartments

Despite the fact that global growth was just 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2014, compared to 1.2 percent the previous quarter, the index nevertheless grew by 7.1 percent year over year. According to Knight Frank, the fourth quarter of the year sees a spike in sales as consumers hurry to close deals before the New Year, as new tax laws also take effect, resulting in a quieter market in the first quarter.

Dubai topped the annual rankings, but prices only rose by 3.4 percent in the first quarter, according to the Knight Frank Q1 2014 Report.

Croatia, Cyprus, and Greece had the worst housing markets in the 12 months leading up to March 2014.

In the top ten rankings for annual price increases, the United States, Australia, and Iceland have joined other emerging markets.

House prices fell in 14 countries over the past year, with 12 of them in Europe.

Dubai, which topped the annual rankings for the fourth quarter in a row, saw a 27.7% increase in prices in the year to the end of March. However, prices increased by 3.4 percent in the first three months of 2014, indicating that the Emirate's property market is being impacted by the doubling of transfer fees and the mortgage limit.

The housing markets in the United States, Australia, and Iceland have all turned around, with all three countries now ranking in the top ten for annual price increases, alongside key emerging markets like China, Turkey, and Brazil.

In the first quarter, price inflation in the United States slowed significantly. On an annualized basis, prices increased by 10.3 percent on average, down from 11.3 percent the previous quarter.

"For the first time since 2008, no single country monitored by the Global House Price Index has reported an annual price fall in excess of 10%," said Kate Everett-Allen, head of International Residential Research at Knight Frank.

Shift in annual percentage terms from Q1 2014 to Q1 2013 - by world field

The bottom ten rankings read like a tour of Eastern and Southern Europe's geography. Even in the poorest housing markets, such as Croatia, Cyprus, and Greece, house prices are still dropping, albeit at a slower rate.

The only non-European countries in the bottom 14 are Singapore and Japan. Singapore's price growth has been halted by cooling steps and stricter mortgage lending requirements, while Japan's "Abenomics" has yet to drive house price growth into positive territory.

In the second quarter, we expect the index's performance to improve once more. The Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank, in particular, would be scrutinized. The problem is not when interest rates increase, but how quickly and how far they rise.