Sydney housing ‘second most expensive’ after Hong Kong

Sydney, Jan 24 (IANS) The Australian city of Sydney was on Tuesday named the second most expensive city for housing in the world while Hong Kong was ranked as the most expensive urban centre.

According to the study undertaken by research group Demographia, Sydney ranked above other global cities traditionally associated with expensive real estate such as Los Angeles, London, San Francisco and New York, Xinhua news agency reported.

Melbourne came in at sixth place in the study, while Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth were all ranked in the top 20 most expensive.

Sydney was by far the "worst" of those though, with the median price of a house in the harbourside city coming in at 12.2 times the median annual household income for residents, while Hong Kong topped the list with 18.1 times income.

Since 2012, the price of a house in Sydney has increased by 69 per cent, while the second most expensive Australian city, Melbourne, had prices rise by 51 per cent over the same period.

Gladys Berejiklian, the newly-installed Prime Minister of New South Wales has vowed to tackle Sydney's housing crisis as one of her key focus areas of her new government.