As home prices worldwide posted their highest increase since Q1 2014, Malaysian residential property values still managed to increase over the past year but at a slower rate.

The results of the newest Knight Frank Global House Price Index saw home prices in the ASEAN nation inching upwards 5.3 percent in Q4 2016 over the same period because of cooling measures under the federal government. This, however, this represented only an increase of 1.1 percent in terms of the rate in the last three months, 3.3 percent over the last six months.

"The house price index in Malaysia continues to grow but the pace of growth has slowed down due to the slew of cooling measures introduced by the government to kerb speculation in the property sector" said Judy Ong Mei Chen, Knight Frank Malaysia's executive director of research and consultancy, in a statement.

Of 55 countries surveyed on the index, Malaysia ranked 27th, while Singapore crashed to the bottom 10. The city-state was marred by geopolitical crises, economic fragility, and cooling measures - many are "artificially restraining growth.”

With an average home price increase of 14.7 percent, Iceland topped the index for the first time. Globally, house prices jumped 6 percent, the highest annual rate registered since the first quarter of 2014. Prices only rose 4.1 percent in Q4 2015. "The overall picture is one of the stable or rising prices, despite the global landscape of political and economic uncertainty" Knight Frank researchers stated in the report.

"Malaysia still remains as an attractive investment destination in the region with its stable property market and relative lower entry prices that continue to offer reasonable returns" Chen said.