Slovenia reached the top of Knight Frank’s global house price index Thursday after seeing property prices rise 15.1% last year.



The small central Eurpoean country—not quite as big as the U.S. state of New Jersey—beat the likes of China, Singapore and India to reach first place in the index for the first time. It’s not clear when the index began.



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It stole the top spot from Hong Kong, which slipped down to 22nd place.



Price growth in the territory was impeded in 2018 by tightening housing policy, including a new fee on newly built flats which are left vacant by developers for a year or more plus “a volatile stock market; a strengthening currency; and, the global trade dispute weighing heavily on buyer sentiment,” Knight Frank said in the report.



After prices dropped 6.2% in the final three months of 2018, Hong Kong’s total yearly price growth stood at 5.9%, the data show.



Countries ranked by percentage price growth in 2018 Mansion Global

Knight Frank’s index tracks average residential prices in 56 global markets using government statistics and central bank data.



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Across all 56 countries and territories, average property values increased by 4.3% in 2018, the lowest annual rate of growth recorded by the index since the third quarter of 2016.



The U.S. ranked 27th with 4.7% price growth last year, and the U.K. was in 40th place with 2.5% growth, right ahead of Greece with 2.4%.



Only eight of the markets saw prices decline in 2018 and half of them were in Europe. Finland fared worst, with property prices falling 2.9%.



Global price growth is expected to moderate further in 2019, with “greater economic uncertainty, heightened market regulation and a rising cost of debt in major economies,” on the horizon, Knight Frank said.

