20 Years of Work for an Apartment

If you want to buy an apartment in Hong Kong, Paris or London, you'll have to come up with a considerable sum. According to the Global Real Estate Bubble Index 2021 from UBS, a highly skilled employee in the service sector with an average salary can only afford a centrally-located 60m2 apartment in Hong Kong after 20 years - in Paris it is 17, in London about 14 years.

Overall, the situation has tightened in most real estate markets around the world. For some of the cities listed here, the risk of a real estate bubble is very high. Singapore is one of the few markets to manage to ease the situation somewhat - while employees still had to work about 16 years for the apartment near the center in 2011, it will be three years less in 2021.