Here’s one accolade Shanghai won’t be adding to its trophy shelf. The ‘Hai boasts among the least affordable housing on the planet, according to a study by Oxford economics. In fact, the top four cities with the most unaffordable housing in the world are all in Asia: Hong Kong, Mumbai, Beijing and Shanghai respectively.
“But wait,” expats might say. “I moved to Shanghai because I couldn’t afford rent in NY or London. How does that make sense?” The survey isn’t actually basing “affordability” solely on real estate cost but rather price-to-income ratios. Bloomberg reports, “In Hong Kong, Mumbai, Beijing and Shanghai, it now takes more than 30 years for a household with the local median income to buy a 90 square meter (970 square foot) apartment.”
“And the return from rents in Mumbai, Shanghai, Beijing, and also Delhi are ‘remarkably low,’ which could be an indicator that the valuations in those cities are ‘stretched.’ In all four cities, gross rental yield was lower than 10 year government bond yields in 2016, unlike places such as Tokyo, Sydney, New York and Seoul.”
In related news, Shanghai remains Asia’s second most expensive city for expats behind Hong Kong as well as Asia’s “most expensive place to be rich.”
Our friends at Shanghai Housing have told us they can help expats in Shanghai find apartments that are affordable with rentals priced from as low at 5000 RMB.
