The world’s most bubbly housing markets

published 20 November 2015

House prices are bubbling over in several of the world's top cities, says UBS, which has created a Global Real Estate Bubble Indexto measure the potential for housing bubbles. Here are the five most at risk, with their index score. A score over 1.5 is a "bubble risk", while a score between 0.5 and 1.5 is "overvalued".

1. London 1.88

15-11-19-sale-634 — London's property market is looking distinctly bubbly

UBS reckons London is the most overvalued market, based bothon price-to-income and price-to-rent ratios. Average real (afterinflation)dwelling prices are up by almost 40% since the startof 2013, more than offsetting all financial-crisis-related losses.House prices no longer bare any resemblance to local householdearnings due to purchases for investment purposes by both localand global buyers.

2. Hong Kong 1.67

3. Sydney 1.39

4. Vancouver 1.35

5. San Francisco 1.15

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Marina Gerner is an award-winning journalist and columnist who has written for the Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement, the Economist, The Guardian and Standpoint magazine in the UK; the New York Observer in the US; and die Bild and Frankfurter Rundschau in Germany.

Marina is also an adjunct professor at the NYU Stern School of Business at their London campus, and has a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Her first book, The Vagina Business, deals with the potential of “femtech” to transform women’s lives, and will be published by Icon Books in September 2024.

Marina is trilingual and lives in London.