(ECNS) – The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has replaced Beijing as the country's top housing-price-to-income location thanks to its rising housing prices, said the Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute in its latest study.
The institute released the housing-price-to-income ratio rankings for 35 major Chinese cities on Wednesday. The top five on the list are Shenzhen (20.2), Xiamen (15.5), Beijing (14.5), Shanghai (11.9) and Guangzhou (11.8).
According to the report, the country's overall housing-price-to-income ratio for commercial properties continued a downward trend that started in 2010, down from 7.3 in 2013 to 7.1 last year. A ratio between six and seven is reasonable for China, the report adds.
The average ratio for the 35 cities was 8.7, with 14 cities higher than average. The report also says that 18 cities saw their ratios fall from 2013, with Yinchuan, Hangzhou and Nanchang seeing the biggest drops due to falling average housing prices.
E-house says the study is based on data from national and local statistics authorities. And because the secondhand housing market, which accounts for nearly half of the market in first-tier cities, is not included in this study, the report can only serve as a reference.
