MANILA is among the most expensive in the region for property buyers and renters, according to a study by United Kingdom-based Online Mortgage Advisor.
Workers on the average annual salary in Manila could only afford 1.5 square meters of housing space in 2020. This was 2.76 meters less than the 4.6 square meters they could afford in 2016.
Online Mortgage Advisor said they compared the average price of 1 square meter of an apartment in the city center of Manila to the average annual salary in 2016 and 2020.
“Manila is the second least affordable city to buy property in Asia, worse than property hotspots such as Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Taipei in Taiwan, and Seoul in South Korea,” Online Mortgage Advisor said in a statement.
The data also showed that Manila has become 64 percent less affordable for renters in 2020 compared to 2016.
This means that in 2020, renters in Manila needed to spend 154 percent of their average salary to pay for rental units. This is significantly higher than the 90 percent they needed in 2016.
Computations on the average monthly net salary versus the average rental cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Manila between 2016 and 2020 were used to calculate the change in affordability between the two years.
“This makes Manila the third worst city for renting affordability in Asia, only beaten by Iranian cities Tehran and Mashhad,” Online Mortgage Advisor said.
Apart from Manila, the five least affordable places in the region are Mashhad, Iran; Tehran, Iran; Vadodara, India; Pune, India. Manila ranked second least affordable after Mashhad.
The five more affordable cities are Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Lucknow, India; Visakhapatnam, India; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Bhubaneswar, India.
In terms of renting, apart from Manila, the five least affordable cities are Tehran, Iran; Mashhad, Iran; Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Lahore, Pakistan. Manila ranked third least affordable after Tehran and Mashhad.
The five more affordable cities to rent in are Hanoi, Vietnam; Astana, Kazakhstan; Yekaterinburg, Russia; Krasnodar, Russia; and Samara, Russia.
Image courtesy of Walter Eric Sy | Dreamstime.com