A year ago ‘slow and steady’ was the order of the day for global house prices, but the latest Q1 2017 Index from Knight Frank has revealed that rising prices are returning.

Overall, the Index, which tracks the property price movement across 55 global countries, increased by 6.5% in the year to March 2017, the fastest annual growth for three years. Kate Everett-Allen, international residential research at Knight Frank, said: “Iceland leads the rankings for the second consecutive quarter. Here, a lack of supply is fuelling price growth.”

The report states: ‘It is not simply that more countries are recording positive growth although that has played a part – 43 countries recorded price rises in Q1 2016, a year on and this figure has risen to 48.

This rise has been accompanied by a concomitant increase in the number of countries seeing double digit annual growth rates. Eleven countries recorded double-digit price growth in the year to March 2017, a year earlier only four fell into this bracket.’