Update | Hong Kong the world’s priciest home market for the seventh year
The city’s apartments cost 18.1 times gross annual median income, Demographia said in its survey of 406 cities. Any region with a median multiple exceeding 5.1 times is “severely unaffordable”
Hong Kong kept its ranking as the world’s least affordable urban centre to buy a home for the seventh year running, in a survey that’s likely to throw a perennial problem back into focus during an election year for the city’s chief executive.
The city’s apartments cost 18.1 times gross annual median income in the third quarter of 2016, according to the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey’s study of 406 cities around the world. That’s a slight improvement from the 2015 study, which stood at a record 19 times income, according to Demographia.
“This improvement is a positive development,” according to US-based Demographia. “However, much greater improvement in housing affordability is needed.”
Hong Kong is the sole Chinese city to be included in the study, which classifies any region with a median multiple exceeding 5.1 as “severely unaffordable.” The city has maintained that dubious honour since at least 2010, when its media multiple was 11.4 times.
Sydney was the second least affordable housing market, with prices at 12.2 times median income, followed by Vancouver at third place.
Hong Kong’s home prices soared to a record last November after climbing for eight consecutive months, according to the government’s December data. Apartments at the South Horizon complex in Aberdeen soared to HK$16,497 per square foot in November, almost 13 per cent higher than in September 2015, according to Centaline Property Agency.