In Beijing it takes nearly 30 years of income to buy an average home.

Beijing
28 yrs
Hong Kong
23 yrs
Paris
14 yrs
Sydney
13 yrs
London
11 yrs
Los Angeles
10 yrs
New York
9 yrs
Cape Town
8 yrs

Median home price as a multiple of median annual income, selected cities.

Why this is happening

Years of near-zero interest rates pumped up prices far faster than incomes.
The most desirable cities simply have not built enough homes for everyone who wants in.
Wealth and investment keep concentrating in a handful of global hubs, bidding them higher still.

The take

When a home costs two decades of income, ownership stops being something you earn and becomes something you inherit. That is how housing quietly hardens into a class divide.

Source: Demographia, national data (2026)