Housing in Hong Kong remained ranked as the most unaffordable for the 11th year in 2020, according to a think tank report, withstanding a series of headwinds including political unrest, a health crisis and a recession.
Still, Hong Kong’s median property price slipped slightly to 20.7 times its median household income, from 20.8 in the previous year, according to the report by Urban Reform Institute and Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
Vancouver ranked second with the median property price rising to 13 times household income, compared to 11.9 in 2019. It was followed by Sydney and Auckland.
«The deterioration in housing affordability represents an existential threat to the middle-income households,» said the report which covered last year’s third-quarter data for 92 metropolitan areas. «Much of the already greater inequality that has developed in recent decades is attributable to rising housing costs.»
Breaking Records High and Low
Hong Kong maintains low housing affordability while its economy suffered a 6.1 percent decline last year – the worst on record – and unemployment reached a near 17-year high of 7 percent last month.
More recently, the city’s housing market broke records once again with a 3,378 square foot luxury penthouse selling for over $59 million.
