Global prime home prices up 2.6 percent annually in Q2
Prime residential prices across the world’s luxury housing markets rose at a slightly faster clip in the second quarter of 2026, led by an extraordinary rebound in Tokyo, even as Canada, mainland China and parts of Australasia remained under pressure.
Knight Frank’s Prime Global Cities Index, which tracks high-end home values in local currency across a 47-city basket, showed prices up 2.6% in the 12 months through June 2026. That was an acceleration from 2.0% in the prior quarter, though still below the 3.0% pace recorded a year earlier. Thirty-two cities posted annual gains and 15 declined. On a quarterly basis, 28 markets rose, 17 fell and two were unchanged.
Tokyo dominated the ranking. Prime prices in the Japanese capital jumped 50.7% over the year and 12.6% in the second quarter alone, reversing an 8.6% drop in the first three months of 2026. Knight Frank said the swing underscored both the scale of Tokyo’s recent repricing and the market’s continuing volatility.
Asia still occupied much of the upper end of the annual league table. Manila ranked second with a 14.6% yearly gain, followed by Dubai at 10.9% and Singapore at 9.5%. Seoul, Mumbai and Bengaluru rose 6.4%, 6.2% and 4.5%, respectively. Short-term momentum was more mixed: Manila and Seoul slipped 2.4% and 2.2% in the quarter, while Singapore and Mumbai advanced 2.0% and 1.7%.
Gains also spread beyond Asia. Nairobi posted the second-strongest quarterly increase in the index, at 5.0%, with Vienna up 4.6% and Stockholm 4.0%. San Francisco climbed 5.0% over 12 months and 2.5% in the quarter. Los Angeles rose 3.0% in the three months through June even as its annual gain remained modest at 1.4%. New York was slightly negative, down 0.4% over the year and 1.0% in the quarter.
The weakest annual results clustered in familiar problem markets. Beijing fell 8.4%, Toronto 7.3% and Wellington 5.4%. London declined 3.6% over 12 months and 0.8% in the quarter. There were tentative signs of stabilization in parts of mainland China: Shenzhen rose 3.6% in the quarter, Guangzhou 2.2% and Shanghai 0.7%, though all three remained lower on an annual basis.
Over five years to the second quarter, Dubai led the index with a 155.3% increase in prime prices, followed by Tokyo at 141.7% and Manila at 88.8%. Miami, Mumbai, Milan, Nairobi, Singapore and Madrid also ranked among the strongest long-run performers. Guangzhou, Auckland and Vancouver sat at the bottom of the five-year list, down 11.9%, 11.2% and 8.9%, respectively.
Liam Bailey
“The latest results point to a modest improvement in global luxury housing market conditions,” Liam Bailey, Knight Frank’s global head of research, said in the report. “Annual growth has strengthened and more cities are now recording price rises, while quarterly gains have broadened beyond the markets that led the initial recovery. Even so, performance remains highly differentiated. Local supply, currency movements, wealth creation and the path of interest rates will continue to shape outcomes at city level.”
The index is valuation-based and measures nominal prices in local currency, so currency swings and differing rate cycles remain central to the city-level story. After a subdued start to 2026, the second-quarter data suggest the global luxury cycle is still measured rather than runaway — except, for now, in Tokyo.
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