A survey report shows that Hong Kong residents need to save every penny for 14.4 years to buy a home.
According to reports from the Hong Kong China News Agency and the online media “Hong Kong 01,” the international public policy consulting firm Demographia released its 2025 International Housing Affordability Report, which shows that Hong Kong remains the world’s least affordable city for housing prices.
However, housing prices in Hong Kong have already dropped about 30% from their peak, and the affordability ratio has fallen from 23.2 times in 2021 to the latest 14.4 times, meaning residents need to save every penny for 14.4 years to buy a property in Hong Kong.
This year’s report evaluates the median residential property price to median income ratios in 95 major cities across eight countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and uses third quarter 2024 data to calculate the affordability level in each major city.
The higher the index, the less affordable the housing. The latest report shows that Hong Kong's housing is still the least affordable, with an index of 14.4. Sydney, Australia (13.8), San Jose, USA (12.1), Vancouver, Canada (11.8), and Los Angeles, USA (11.2) rank second to fifth, respectively.
The report points out that Hong Kong has always been the least affordable housing market since joining the survey, but the situation has eased in recent years. The latest index of 14.4 is already an improvement compared to 16.7 in 2023 and 20.8 before the pandemic in 2019. (News Source: Lianhe Zaobao)