Knight Frank’s Prime Global Cities Index which tracks the performance of luxury residential property prices continues to outperform the mainstream market equivalent. However, it’s a mixed picture with previous strong performers such as London slipping back whilst cities such as San Francisco, Vancouver and Sydney climb up the rankings.

Kate Everett- Allen examines the latest luxury market trends and comments; “If we were to omit cities in North America and Australia, the index would have recorded growth of 2.3% instead of 3.9% in the year to March 2015.”

The index increased by 3.9% in the year to March 2015 with North American cities occupying three of the top four rankings for annual price growth.

Luxury properties are, on average, 46% more expensive than in Q2 2009 when the index hit its financial crisis low.

European luxury homes have, on average, been the weakest performers globally over the last year, while in Moscow, luxury prices increased by 0.6% (in Roubles) but fell by 38% (in US dollars) year-on-year.