{"id":7679,"date":"2017-11-30T16:46:16","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T16:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.buyassociation.co.uk\/?p=7679"},"modified":"2017-11-30T16:46:16","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T16:46:16","slug":"the-cost-of-living-in-this-city-will-make-london-seem-cheap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/2017\/11\/30\/the-cost-of-living-in-this-city-will-make-london-seem-cheap\/","title":{"rendered":"The cost of living in this city will make London seem cheap…"},"content":{"rendered":"
London is the least affordable major city in Western Europe for housing, but it might seem like a bargain compared to some of these places across the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n The most expensive place to live in the world, when the cost of housing is compared to average income, has been revealed to be Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.<\/p>\n According to data released by Bloomberg, the average worker there brings home a monthly wage of just $31 (around \u00a323). But the average monthly rent is $416 and mortgage payments average $1,971 – equating the cost to a staggering 3,849.2% of income.<\/p>\n Emerging economies seem to offer the most expensive housing in relation to income. Kiev in Ukraine is second on the list, with the cost of housing at 372.3% higher than the average monthly pay, followed by Hanoi in Vietnam (334%), Mumbai in India (283.7%) and Buenos Aires in Argentina (253.5%).<\/p>\n Other capital cities in the top 10 include Bogota in Colombia, where average monthly pay is $410 compared to rent at $599 and mortgage payments at $1,404, and Beijing<\/a> in China, where residents bring home $1,287 a month while rent costs $1,748 and mortgages are $4,092 a month in average.<\/p>\n In London<\/a>, average monthly rent and mortgage payments equate to 135% of monthly net income – which is still unaffordable for most, but not on the same scale as the top 10.<\/p>\n Enrique Mart\u00ednez-Garc\u00eda, a senior research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said: “Not having access to credit<\/a> is a challenge to develop a healthy housing market. But opening it up too fast might be a problem as well; it might actually lead to a boom-bust episode.”<\/p>\n The most affordable place to live in the world, based on the same measures, is Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Here, the average monthly income is $1,755, while rent costs $760 on average and monthly mortgage payments come in at $343 – meaning the cost of accommodation compared to income is 31.4%.<\/p>\nAnd the most affordable?<\/h4>\n