Sydney Tops The Charts As Least Affordable City In The World

Every major housing market in Australia has been dubbed ‘extremely unaffordable’, according to an annual international survey.

According to the 14th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, released this month, the median home in Sydney, for example, now costs 13 times the median annual household income.

The study classifies markets as ‘extremely unaffordable’ when the median home price is more than five times the median household income. Markets are deemed affordable when the median price is only three times median income or less.

As a result of the survey, which looked at 293 metropolitan housing markets in nine countries, comparing income to housing prices in the third quarter of 2017, Sydney was named the least affordable city in the world.

Only 10 metro markets with populations over one million were found to be ‘affordable’, and they were all small Rust Belt cities in the United States, including places like Rochester, New York, and Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hong Kong took the second spot on the list of the least affordable market in the world, followed by Vancouver. Many West Coast cities like San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles were also named ‘extremely unaffordable’, with Santa Cruz ranking as the least affordable city in the U.S. and the fourth least affordable city in the world.

London, Miami and New York were also found to be also on the list of least affordable cities.