Hong Kong maintains its position as the world's most expensive residential city, while Bangkok is ranked 33rd out of 35 cities surveyed, according to the latest research by CBRE.

The fifth annual Global Living Report by the multinational real estate services group underlines how investments in urban areas such as transport infrastructure, connectivity, retail, cultural centres and housing are key drivers of economic growth.

This year's survey expands the number of cities covered from 29 to 35, from emerging technology-driven powerhouses like Shenzhen to more traditional capitals such as Rome and Lisbon, to rapidly evolving modern urban centres like Dubai and Johannesburg.

"The world's greatest cities continue to transform to encourage innovation, increase their working and living populations and create new commercial opportunities for businesses," said Jennet Siebrits, head of residential research at CBRE UK.

The three most expensive places to buy a residential property are once again in Asia, led by Hong Kong where the average residential property costs $1.235 million (39.5 million baht). Singapore is second at $874,372, followed by Shanghai at $872,555 (see table). All three cities last year introduced cooling measures to keep property prices under control.

Bangkok stands near the bottom of the table in 33rd position with an average residential property price of 3.4 million baht ($106,383), followed by Ho Chi Min City at $103,057 and Istanbul at $97,396.

The biggest year-on-year growth was experienced by Barcelona (16.9%), Dublin (11.6%), Shanghai (11.2%) and Madrid (10.2%). London remains one of the top 10 performing global cities, with the average property price of $646,973, although growth was down to 1.1%.

"House prices increased year-on-year across 30 out of the 35 cities we looked at, although generally at lower rates than previously," said Ms Siebrits. "In general, CBRE is seeing house price growth slow across cities as we move towards the end of a long property cycle.

"We would expect increasing interest rates to be affecting cities in the US, and various cooling measures affecting Asia-Pacific, although Shanghai still saw robust growth."

Six out of the 10 cities with the highest house price growth are in Europe, she said.

"Barcelona, Madrid, and Dublin all suffered severe price falls in prices during the 2008 financial crisis and took much longer to recover from the economic downturn that followed. Now they are showing significant growth," said Ms Siebrits. "In comparison, London recovered much faster after the downturn and is now further into the cycle."

The research also highlights considerable rental growth in many European cities, including Lisbon (20.9%), Madrid (11.1%), Dublin (7.8%) and Barcelona (7.7%). Supply constraints and increasing demand were among the factors leading to Lisbon and Madrid's continuing double-digit rental growth.

Three Canadian cities feature in the top 10 for rental growth -- Vancouver (6.8%), Toronto (4.8%) and Montreal (3.9%) -- driven by strong employment growth and low vacancy rates, said Ms Siebrits.

To read the full report, visit https://bit.ly/2GAtAsj