“Most expensive” is easy to say and hard to define. Some cities are expensive because they are genuinely high-priced.
Others are expensive because the local middle class has been structurally priced out. Mixing those stories produces rankings
that look authoritative and explain very little.
“standard” 70 m² apartment costs, and an affordability lens to prevent the usual confusion between expensive and
unaffordable.
Expensive vs unaffordable: the distinction that changes the ranking
A city can be extremely expensive and still be partially accessible if incomes keep pace. Conversely, a city can look less
pricey on paper and remain out of reach because wages lag behind housing values.
That’s why this article pairs a price proxy with an affordability signal (price-to-income). If you only look at prices,
you’ll miss the markets where the social break happens first.
How the “standard apartment” price is estimated
To keep comparisons internationally consistent, we use a simple, repeatable approach:
- Price proxy: average price per square meter in central areas (USD).
- Concrete estimate: 70 m² apartment cost = price per m² × 70.
- Affordability lens: a price-to-income ratio (often reported as a “median multiple”).
The 15 most expensive markets, with a 70 m² cost estimate
Hong Kong
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 14.4
- Average price per m² (central areas): $25,400
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$1,780,000
London
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 9.1
- Average price per m² (central areas): $19,770
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$1,384,000
Sydney
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 13.8
- Average price per m² (central areas): $12,800
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$896,000
San Francisco
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 10.0
- Average price per m² (central areas): $10,640
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$745,000
San Jose
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 12.1
- Average price per m² (central areas): $9,400
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$660,000
Vancouver
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 11.8
- Average price per m² (central areas): $9,100
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$638,000
Toronto
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 8.4
- Average price per m² (central areas): $8,940
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$626,000
Honolulu
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 10.8
- Average price per m² (central areas): $8,650
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$605,000
San Diego
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 9.5
- Average price per m² (central areas): $8,610
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$603,000
Adelaide
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 10.9
- Average price per m² (central areas): $8,150
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$571,000
Los Angeles
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 11.2
- Average price per m² (central areas): $7,500
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$524,000
Brisbane
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 9.3
- Average price per m² (central areas): $7,470
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$523,000
Melbourne
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 9.7
- Average price per m² (central areas): $7,060
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$494,000
Miami
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 8.1
- Average price per m² (central areas): $6,870
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$481,000
Perth
- Price-to-income ratio (median multiple): 8.3
- Average price per m² (central areas): $5,850
- Estimated price for a 70 m² apartment: ~$409,000
What this table says that “top 10 expensive cities” articles usually miss
Hong Kong is the benchmark for the wrong reason.
Its 70 m² estimate looks extreme, but the real story is the affordability ratio.
When price-to-income goes deep into double digits, the market stops being a “housing market” and starts behaving like a
capital allocation system.
Australia’s presence is structural, not anecdotal.
Multiple Australian cities show up because the “expensive” story is not limited to one superstar metro.
When several markets in the same country cluster high on both price and price-to-income, you’re looking at a system-level issue.
North America’s expensive metros are often “income-mismatch” stories.
San Jose and San Francisco are expensive, yes, but the most important effect is who gets pushed out first:
the local middle-income household, not the globally mobile high earner.
London is expensive in price, less extreme in affordability.
That combination produces a city that is brutally costly to enter, yet still partially workable for certain income bands.
The outcome is not “healthy”, but it is different from the markets where affordability breaks entirely.
Why this focuses on apartments, not houses
This is not a convenient choice. In most of these metros, the “median” housing product is an apartment, and single-family homes
are either rare, peripheral, or effectively off-market for any “standard” comparison.
Comparing houses across Hong Kong, London, and Perth would not clarify the picture. It would destroy comparability.
Global urban housing stress is now primarily an apartment problem.
