Austria, not Australia among the world's 10 hottest real estate markets: Knight Frank global house price index

Hong Kong ranked as the top performing real estate market across the globe in 2012, international real estate consultants Knight Frank report.

It notched up a 23.6% rise last year.

The global house price index which lists 55 countries, shows Australia globally in 28^th place behind near namesake, Austria which had 10.1% growth placing in sixth spot. 

Australia, with a 2.1% growth in the housing market during 2012, has been slowly climbing the list from 32^nd in the third quarter of 2012, 34th in the third quarter of 2011.

Of the 55 housing markets, 20 experienced price falls in 2012 down from 25 in 2011.

The report found that of the 20 countries that had a price fall, 19 were located in Europe.

House prices around the world rose by an average of 4.3% in 2012 according to the index.

Knight Frank's Kate Everett-Allen suggsted stronger conditions across all other world regions were offset by continuing challenges in the main European markets.

"The 2012 results suggest the rehabilitation of the world’s housing markets – following the global financial crisis – is still a ‘work in progress’."

Knight Frank Global House Price Index

1 Hong Kong  23.6% 

2 Dubai, UAE 19.0% 

3 Brazil 13.7% 

4 Turkey 10.5% 

5 Russia 10.2% 

6 Austria 10.1% 

7 Taiwan 9.7% 

8 China 9.3% 

9 India 8.5% 

10 Colombia 8.3% 

11 South Africa 7.4% 

12 United States 7.3% 

13 Malaysia 7.3% 

14 Indonesia 7.0% 

15 New Zealand 6.7% 

16 Norway 6.6% 

17 Estonia 5.4% 

18 Iceland 4.6% 

19 Israel 4.5% 

20 Switzerland 3.9% 

21 Finland 3.7% 

22 Mexico 3.1% 

23 Canada 3.1% 

24 Singapore 2.6% 

25 Czech Republic 2.5% 

26 Belgium 2.4% 

27 Germany 2.2% 

28 Australia 2.1% 

29 Sweden 2.1% 

30 Latvia 1.9% 

31 Slovakia 0.9% 

32 Jersey 0.2% 

33 Denmark 0.2% 

34 South Korea 0.0% 

35 Morocco 0.0% 

36 Luxembourg -0.3% 

37 Ukraine -0.9% 

38 United Kingdom -1.1% 

39 Malta -1.2% 

40 Bulgaria -1.4% 

41 Poland -1.5% 

42 France -1.6% 

43 Lithuania -2.6% 

44 Japan -2.6% 

45 Italy -4.1% 

46 Ireland -4.5% 

47 Portugal -5.1% 

48 Romania -5.6% 

49 Hungary -5.7% 

50 Cyprus -5.8% 

51 Netherlands -6.3% 

52 Slovenia -7.6% 

53 Croatia -8.7% 

54 Spain -10.0% 

55 Greece -13.2%