If you thought property prices in Cape Town and Johannesburg were getting higher ... you're right

A new report has revealed what you’ve always suspected: property prices in Cape Town and Johannesburg are getting more expensive.

The Knight Frank Global Residential Cities Index‚ released this week‚ shows that property prices are increasing across the globe from the third quarter of 2016 until the same period last year – even if this rate of growth has slowed.

The index tracks the movement in mainstream house prices across 150 cities worldwide. Cape Town and Johannesburg are the only two South African cities on the list.

Cape Town took number 31 on the index‚ with an 8.4% annual house price growth. Johannesburg registered an annual house price growth of 3.2%‚ beating big cities like Mumbai‚ Washington DC‚ London and Auckland‚ despite coming at number 90 on the index.

But these property price increases were nothing compared to Reykjavik‚ the capital and largest city of Iceland. It tops the rankings and is the only one of the 150 cities where annual house price growth exceeded 20% in the year to September 2017. Reykjavik had 21.3% growth.

Toronto dropped from the top spot to fourth. While prices were still up 18%‚ this was a decline in growth from 29% year-on-year.

Some of the largest risers through the rankings include Amsterdam and Utrecht‚ however‚ the report found this was largely due to declining growth rates of others‚ notably in Indian and Chinese cities.

The overall index increased showed that properties were still 4.7% more expensive globally – but the growth has slowed from 5.8%.

Analysis over a five-year period shows cities in the Middle East have seen the highest rise in nominal house price growth‚ averaging 58%. Istanbul recorded the highest increase of 129% over the five-year period.

- TimesLIVE