T.O. not Shanghai, but still not cheap

Housing report places city 12th on list of most expensive cities in world

It may be hard to find an affordable place to live in Toronto, but it’s still less expensive than New York or Hong Kong.

Toronto came 12th in a ranking of the world’s most expensive places to live, according to a new report by CBRE Residential that analyzed housing and rental prices for 35 major cities. CBRE named Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai as the three most expensive cities. The top city in Canada was Vancouver at No. 4, while Montreal ranked 25th.

According to the report, the average price of a Toronto home is now $766,832, which is more than double the cost of an average Montreal home.

In the most expensive housing market, Hong Kong, the average price of a house is $1,647,722.

Rental prices in Toronto jumped nearly 5 per cent, with the report noting that recent demand for rental properties has been generated by baby boomers looking to downsize and professionals moving to the city to work in the tech industry. New York City boasts the highest monthly rents, with an average of $3,794, while rents in Vancouver are the highest in Canada at an average of $1,390.

The report says housing prices grew in all but five of the cities it looked at. In Toronto, housing prices rose 1.4 per cent in the past year, down considerably from an average of 10 per cent a year over the past decade.

Montreal’s housing prices grew 5.9 per cent, giving it the 11th highest increase in prices and the highest increase in Canada. The cities with the biggest increases in housing prices were concentrated in Europe, with Madrid, Dublin and Barcelona experiencing growth rates of more than 10 per cent. Those cities also were among the Top 5 for rental growth.

CBRE says rental prices went up 4.8 per cent in Toronto in the past year, driven by a near-historically low vacancy rate of 1.2 per cent. In Canada, Vancouver had the highest rental growth rate with 6.8 per cent.