Hong Kong has the most expensive real estate in the world, with the average single-family home in the Kowloon area priced at $3,570.23 per square foot, says a recent survey by Century 21 Canada. This is 3.5 times more expensive than Beijing, the second most expensive city at $1,005.31 per square foot for a single-family home.
The survey of 75 cities in 27 countries detailing the average-price-per-square-foot (APPSF) for a home found that generally, the PPSF is higher for a condo than for a single-family home.
A single-family home in West Vancouver is closely equated to San Francisco, averaging $824.47 APPSF and $934.96 APPSF respectively, while a condo in downtown Vancouver comes in at $1,172.80 APPSF compared to $1,454.57 APPSF in San Francisco, the company says.
The downtown Toronto condo market is most closely comparable to Tokyo ($833.20 APPSF and $775.72 APPSF respectively). Montreal ($519.51 APPSF) is most closely comparable to New York City ($508.62 APPSF).
Century 21 conducted a similar survey in 2007. At that time, Singapore ranked as one of the least-expensive places in which to purchase a typical executive home, with a price tag of $373,857. Ten years later, in 2017, that average price came in at more than six times this value, at $2,261,436.
Hong Kong also ranks as the most expensive city in which to purchase a condo with the average price in the downtown area at $2,330.81 APPSF. This is 1.6 times more expensive than Al Khobar (Saudi Arabia), the second most expensive at $1,479.92 APPSF.
Shanghai came in as the third most expensive for a single-family house at $955.39 APPSF and San Francisco was third most expensive for a condo at $1,454.57 APPSF.
“Canada’s housing market has attracted much attention over the past few years. These numbers show just how we rank on a global scale,” says Century 21 Canada EVP Brian Rushton. “While prices are no doubt expensive, we really rank in the middle of the pack when compared to other global cities.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Maricaibo-Zuila in Venezuela is the least expensive city in which to buy property, with a single-family home priced at $10.17 APPSF.
Century 21 asked brokers in countries around the globe to provide the price-per-square-metre for a typical home in the downtown area for three cities in each nation. The data gathered in this study included average sales price, average size – square metre and average size – square feet. From this data the company calculated the price-per-square-foot for each of these cities. The value was then translated from U.S. dollars to Canadian dollars at a rate of $1.23 USD to $1 Cdn.
