House prices in Brazil grew by over a quarter (26 per cent) in 2011, due to population growth, increasing household wealth and an expanding mortgage market, according to the property firm Knight Frank. 

Brazil’s strong performance aside however, the firm logged depreciating housing value in 60 per cent of the countries listed on its Global House Price Index.  

European markets occupy 12 of the bottom positions. House prices in Ireland were down 17 per cent, putting it in last place - a ranking which, compared with Brazil, represents a 43 percentage point performance disparity.

Similarly, the Global Property Guide recently highlighted that although globally the “overall picture is one of negative performance,” the US is “trending into positive territory,” while Brazil and India are the top performers by a “significant margin.”

On a regional scale, Knight Frank’s index illustrates that house prices are declining fastest in Europe (-0.8 per cent), while growth in Asia Pacific slowed to just 2.8 per cent.

“What the index makes clear is that the performance of global housing markets is far from uniform. While there is some cause for localized optimism, the overall trend for 2012 at least is unlikely to be positive,” the firm said.

Overall, the Global House Price Index, which tracks the performance of mainstream house prices worldwide, rose by 0.5 per cent last year, logging a 0.3 per cent decline in the final quarter, according to Knight Frank international researcher Kate Everett-Allen.