Hong Kong is the priciest housing market in 2021: study

Following Hong Kong were Sydney and Vancouver.

Hong Kong is the most expensive housing market in 2021 across 92 markets, according to the Urban Reform Institute and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy study.

In the 2022 edition of Demographia International Housing Affordability, the centre assessed the housing affordability of 92 major markets in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK, and the US for the third quarter of 2021. 

Each market is ranked by median multiple, which is a “price-to-income ratio of the median house price divided by the gross median household income.”

READ MORE: Property sales up 63.8% in May

Hong Kong is the most expensive with a median multiple of 23.2, which is also a 2.4-point increase from 20.9 reported in 2019. Half of this increase was attributed to lower incomes.

“There are important proposals to increase the housing supply in Hong Kong to improve housing affordability. These include a new 2.5 million resident ‘metropolis’ on the undeveloped land between Hong Kong and adjacent Shenzhen,” the study also indicated.

Following Hong Kong were Sydney at 15.3, Vancouver at 13.3, San Jose at 12.6, and Melbourne at 12.1. 

In contrast, the most affordable market is Pittsburgh at 2.7, followed by Oklahoma City and Rochester at 3.3, with Edmonton and St. Louis at 3.6.

Compared to 2019, the study also showed that severely expensive markets went up by 60% last year due to the pandemic.