A study by StockApps finds the most expensive places to buy and rent in the world and identifies the fastest growing housing and rental markets
Rex Pascual – StockApps
Most of the global residential property market was enjoying a rosy outlook for the rest of the year before COVID-19 shrouded the world in a blanket of uncertainty. Looking at the global housing and rental markets for 2019 and 2020, we can identify key indicators that are important when it comes to better understanding the effects of COVID-19 on the global residential property market.
Hong Kong world’s most expensive property market
Despite the effects of COVID-19 and the much publicised social unrest in HK, the city-state is listed as the most expensive place to get a residential property with a staggering average price of $1.23M per property. This puts it well above the 2nd most expensive city Munich, which has an average property price of $1M, a substantial quarter of a million dollars more.
This also puts HK at nearly double the price of the average residential property price in New York which is listed as the 10th most expensive city at $646K per property. Hong Kong also leads the list in most expensive residential properties by square footage at $2K per square foot. Notably, Singapore – another island nation, sits at 2nd at $1214 per square foot.
Munich and Istanbul world’s fastest growing property markets
In terms of the fastest-growing property market, Munich leads the category with a recorded growth of 11% in 2019 while Istanbul has been the fastest growing property market in the last decade at 13%.
Rental Markets
The staggering average property price in Hong Kong is one of the main reasons that in 2018, nearly 45% of the city’s population lived in government-funded public permanent housing. These government-funded properties are meant for lower-income residents which pushes the rental market down.
As a result, HK is only listed as the third most expensive rental market at $2662 per month while New York is the most expensive city to rent a property in 2020 at $2870 per month.
Notably, Lisbon blew away other cities as the fastest-growing rental market in the world in 2019 with a recorded 16% growth. Cairo, which places second on the list, only grew by half that number at 8%.
