Brazil was the market that saw the highest increase in home prices among the different markets around the world last year, with an increase of 26.3 percent last year, according to a latest report.

The Global House Price Index released on Thursday by real estate consultancy Knight Frank showed Estonia and China's Hong Kong ranked the second and third last year, with their home prices gaining 12.3 percent and 11.3 percent, respectively.

In terms of the real estate price gains, the Chinese mainland market led the increases globally with accumulated gains of 110.9 percent, the report said.

Hong Kong and Isreal saw gains of 93.7 percent and 54.5 percent, respectively, putting them in the second and third places.

Singapore accumulated gains of 50.5 percent over the past five years, the fourth highest globally, but its year-on-year growth in 2011 slowed to 4.6 percent, the 15th highest around the world.

The global index gained 0.5 percent in 2011, following gains of 2.8 percent in 2010. Knight Frank said that fourth quarter last year represented the index's weakest quarterly performance since the second quarter of 2009.

"This suggests that a return to significant house price growth around the world is some way off yet," it said.

All the bottom positions in the list of 52 markets were dominated by European markets. Ireland led the losses with a decrease of 17 percent, in line with the economic uncertainties seen there.