Sydney second most unaffordable market in the world
One of Australia’s largest property markets has been labelled the second most unaffordable city for housing in the world, beaten out only by Hong Kong.
The 14th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, looking at 293 major international metropolitan markets across nine countries for the third quarter of 2017, has revealed that the NSW capital is severely unaffordable in terms of housing.
Ranking in at 91 out of all 92 least affordable markets, Sydney was also Australia’s least affordable market overall. In fact, the survey recorded such high levels of affordability that it specifies that the result “is the poorest major housing affordability ever recorded by the survey outside Hong Kong”.
While Melbourne did beat out Sydney in terms of affordability, the other major Australian market ranked at 88, the fifth most unaffordable international market worldwide.
The other major housing markets, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, were ranked 77, 75 and 72 respectively.
Overall, the most unaffordable markets were determined the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast.
Meanwhile, the most affordable markets, deemed by the report as “moderately affordable”, were Gladstone and Rockhampton in Queensland, while no markets were determined to be “affordable” or “moderately affordable”.
In terms of the nine major countries, China, represented by the Hong Kong region, was the most unaffordable, which was then followed by Australia and then New Zealand.
The top 10 most affordable major housing markets, according to the survey, were located all in the US, with Rochester, New York, coming in as most affordable market internationally.
The top 10 most affordable major international markets:
| Rank | Market | Country |
| 1 | Rochester, NY | US |
| 2 | Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN | US |
| 2 | Cleveland, OH | US |
| 4 | Buffalo, NY | US |
| 4 | Oklahoma City, OK | US |
| 4 | Pittsburgh, PA | US |
| 7 | Detroit, MI | US |
| 7 | Saint Louis, MO-IL | US |
| 9 | Grand Rapids, MI | US |
| 9 | Indianapolis, IN | US |
The top 10 least affordable major international markets:
| Rank | Market | Country |
| 83 | London | UK |
| 84 | Auckland | New Zealand |
| 85 | San Francisco | US |
| 86 | Honolulu | US |
| 87 | Los Angeles | US |
| 88 | Melbourne | Australia |
| 89 | San Jose | US |
| 90 | Vancouver | Canada |
| 91 | Sydney | Australia |
| 92 | Hong Kong | China |
The major property markets ranked by affordability for all markets:
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