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Vancouver’s housing market second most unaffordable in the world: study

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TORONTO (NEWS1130) – Vancouver has the second most unaffordable housing market in the world after Hong Kong, according to a new study of major property markets.

The annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey ranks real estate markets in Canada, the United States, Australia, China, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Vancouver’s affordability ranking in 2015 is the worst it has ever been in the survey’s 11-year history.

Tsur Somerville with the UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate says looking at price to income ratios, as the report does, doesn’t tell the full picture.

“I don’t think for a minute that the first reason that we’re such a pricey place to be is because of the governments… [If we] didn’t have mountains and water and a beautiful place to live, we’d be a whole lot more affordable,” he tells us.

“The cities that are unaffordable are all the places that you’d like to live and the cities that are affordable are all the places you’d least like to live. It’s a little bit misleading in that way,” he adds.

Although Vancouver was the only Canadian city that made it to the top 10, housing markets in Toronto, Victoria, Kelowna, and the Fraser Valley were also ranked as unaffordable.

Meanwhile, Moncton, N.B. was ranked Canada’s most affordable market.

Saint John, N.B., Fredericton, N.B., Windsor, Ont. and Charlottetown were also ranked as affordable places to buy homes.

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