Hong Kong. When it comes to housing affordability. According to Demographia, a United States-based urban planning research unit, Hong Kong has emerged as one of the most expensive cities out of 367 metropolitan areas in 9 countries. Second on the list was Sydney, followed by Vancouver, Melbourne and Auckland. Singapore was 5th on the list.
Photo: Apartment in Viking Garden, Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, median home prices are almost 19 times the median annual gross household income. It is the largest year-to-year increase in pricing over the 12 years in which the research was conducted. A small shoebox apartment below 500 sq ft would cost almost US$75,000 (or S$1.1million) in Hong Kong. That is almost double the price of such an apartment unit in Singapore. In the United States, only 9 metropolitan registered highly affordable housing prices, with San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego being some of them. 14 other cities in the United States remained under the affordable level, with Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Rochester tied in first place.
Photo: San Francisco apartment
With the US interest rates rising this year however, property analysts are expecting some change in the global property markets. Hong Kong’s property bubble may burst should the authorities do good on their promise to meet housing supply demand.
In Singapore, housing prices are 5 times that of the median annual gross household income. Although still considered ‘severely unaffordable’ under Demographia’s rating scale, HDB has been making efforts in the last couple of years to increase supply and reduce demand for public housing. For now, the price of a new HDB flat is still $150,000 to $180,000 lesser than a resale unit in the same area.
