The Savills World Cities Prime Residential Index has been topped by Berlin in the first half of 2019, followed by Paris. 

Despite a global slowdown, both markets registered an average increase of 8%, driven by a shortage of supply and growing demand from international as well as domestic buyers. 

Savills had also ranked Berlin first in the past twelve months. 

Several Chinese cities saw their prices rise in the first half of the year too, leaving the less-than-optimistic months of muted growth in 2018 far behind. Much of this could be attributed to housing restrictions easing as internal and external factors impact the economy. 

Similarly, as Savills reports, Moscow witnessed a 1.2% price increase in the first six months of 2019 as Russian money returns to the capital following years of declining prices. 

Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok’s prime prices increased by just short of 2.5% in the same timeframe, fuelled by international investment levels. 

An increase in prime residential values in global cities is often caused by a significant difference in supply and demand levels, with demand often outweighing supply due to limited land. According to Savills, high net worth individuals will likely still choose to include prime residential properties from global cities in their portfolio, to store their wealth and use as a base for work and leisure.
 
It was also revealed that the current global slowdown is not expected to cause any major price declines, and will likely only leave its mark by causing smaller increases for certain cities.