Chinese cities continue to dominate Knight Frank’s latest Global Residential Cities Index, which at 5.5% in Q2 2016 recorded its strongest annual rate of growth for two years.

According to the Index for the second quarter of the year, which tracked 150 cities, six of the top 10 cities, based on rankings for annual price growth, were located in China, led by Shenzhen where annual growth hit 47%, although this is down from 63% in Q1. Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, Guangzhou and Hangzhou were the other Chinese cities featured at the top.

Kate Everett-Allen, partner, international residential research, Knight Frank, said: “Six Chinese cities all sit within the top ten rankings for annual price growth. Their ascension has been rapid. According to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics the average annual rate of growth for the top ten performing Chinese cities equates to 22% in the year to June, a year earlier the comparable figure was -1.1% for the same ten cities.”

Closer to home, four of Europe’s top 10 fastest growing cities in Q2 were located in England: Bristol (15.3%), London (14.4%), Nottingham (10.7%) and Birmingham (9.6%).

The fastest growing city in Europe was the Hungarian capital of Budapest (23.6%), while Amsterdam (14.7%) in the Netherlands also performed well.

At the other end of the spectrum, Moscow occupies the bottom ranking with prices falling 11% in the year to June.

Everett-Allen added: “Of the 150 cities tracked, 114 recorded positive annual price growth and 31 cities saw price growth exceed double digits.”