20 things you should know about…the international property market

• Scotland saw the biggest rise in house prices in Britain during 2005, up by almost 15 per cent in the year – compared to an average increase across the UK of just over 5 per cent.
• The average home in Wales experienced a year-on-year increase of 31 per cent between January 2005 and January 2006, equating to an average profit of £30,834.

• According to comment from GE Money Home Lending, the housing market in England continues to grow with annual house price inflation in London reaching 5.3 per cent in January 2006, up from 3.8 per cent in December 2005.
• The average selling price of new properties in Northern Ireland (NI) increased by 15.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2005, compared with the same period in 2004.
• 56 per cent of French people are currently homeowners, with the figure increasing by around 1 per cent every year.
• A staggering 82 per cent of Italians are currently property owners and in a recent survey by GE, 87 per cent of households in Italy place property ownership as their biggest desire.
• In Austria, the government has introduced incentives to encourage renovation and building of housing in specific regions. The ‘housing encouragement allowances’ support house financing and 80 per cent of all new apartments in the country are estimated to be co-financed with these allowances.
• The overall number of mortgage deals in Latvia increased by 5 per cent last year, and the average property price increase in Riga rose by 30 per cent.
• In the Czech Republic, 90 per cent of the renting population lives in regulated housing, a system implemented by the previous communist regime.
• With a population of 38.5 million it is estimated that Poland is short of 1.4 million apartments. In order to fill this gap, up to 300,000 apartments a year need to be constructed, according to GE Money (Poland).
• In Germany, first mortgage customers dominate the market and buy-to-let is becoming increasingly important – however, traditional products win over the niche product types like home equity loans or reverse mortgages, which are either unpopular or non-existent in the market.
• Hungary boasts the highest rate of home ownership in Europe, which stands at a staggering 92 per cent and its capital, Budapest, is currently in the spotlight for a large number of European buy-to-let purchasers, fuelled by Hungary’s strong corporate rental market.
• Finland is famed for its saunas, and almost every house in the country has one or more. There are 1.1 million residential buildings in Finland boasting 1.2 million saunas.
• There are approximately 10.5 million people in Belgium with two-thirds owning their own home.
• The United States of America’s mortgage industry is coming out of its second best year ever as lenders funded $3.3 trillion in home mortgages during 2005, which marked a 17 per cent increase on 2004.
• Non-conforming lending remains an area of steady growth in the US, despite an increase in interest rates slowing the market – non-conforming borrowers are less interest-rate sensitive.
• An estimated 23 per cent of Mexicans are homeowners, which, when compared to other emerging and developing economies, is a fairly high percentage. In addition, growth in total mortgage debt origination and new loans from 2000 to 2009 is predicted to be 11 per cent per annum.
• Australia has consistently had a high level of home ownership. Since the early 1960s, around 70 per cent of occupied private dwellings have been either bought outright or been purchased by its occupants through a mortgage.
• In 1996, almost three-quarters of Hong Kong’s residents lived in the urbanised areas of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, with the other 56 per cent choosing to reside in more suburban and rural areas. Since then, the population in permanent residential flats has increased by 3.5 per cent, with almost 60 per cent of residents choosing to live in suburban and rural areas by 2005.