A new survey of global house prices shows that prices are rising in a number of countries, but not in southern Europe.
Prices went up in 39 of the countries analysed compared to 27 in 2012.
The Knight Frank Global House Price Index shows prices rose on average by 8.4% last year. This was the greatest rate of increase since the study first started 18 years ago.
Property in Dubai had the biggest annual rise, up nearly 35% although values are still 25% lower than the peak there in 2008.
Ukraine was the weakest market with a 26% fall. Recent events there may have caused a further drop.
Portugal was seen to have a 0.5% fall since 2012. The rate of decline is slowing as values remained stable from April 2013 to December.
Spain’s suffering was measured in part by a 4% drop in property prices in 2013 compared to the previous year.
Analysis by the OECD last year noted that property markets in Spain and other southern European countries, including France, remained overvalued despite large falls in prices.
Greek property suffered a worse battering with a fall of 9.3%.
Figures for Cyprus and Italy were for the year to October and showed declines of 7.3% and 5.3%, respectively.
Prices in France fell 1.4% in 2013 and in the Netherlands by 3.7%.Property values in Ireland rose by 6.4% and in the UK by 7%.
Several emerging market nations showed high jumps in property costs. Turkey (13.8%), Brazil (12.7%), Indonesia and Colombia (both 11.5%) were all in the top ten, along with China (27.5) and the US (11.3%).
