The confusing statistic is that despite these high prices, China has a very high home ownership rate of 70% among millennials compared to the US rate of 35%. The chart from Zillow comparing prices in US and Chinese metropolitan areas show property per square meter being drastically more expensive in China. This rapid GDP and property price growth is seen in all of China’s major cities, making them very expensive places to buy property.

Though Beijing's GDP grew about 800% between 2000 to 2016, the property prices grew even quicker. In Beijing, the ratio is 22.3, meaning that, on average, a person making $50,000 a year would be living in a $1.12M home.

A price to income ratio of 4 or above is already considered very pricey, but Chinese cities are well above that. In fact, 7 out of the 10 most expensive property markets in the world are in China.Īt the chart above from the IMF (International Monetary Fund), Chinese cities are the most expensive places in the world to buy property on a price-income ratio, even more so than developed global cities.

This trend isn’t only in Hong Kong though it is difficult to buy property in any of mainland China’s top tier cities, with prices skyrocketing to severely unaffordable levels. You may be surprised to learn the average price of a new apartment in Hong Kong is over $2M, making it the most expensive real estate market in the world in terms of price levels.

Whats a global city mcgill