The Reality Of World's Top 3 Liveable Cities

According to the recently released Global Liveability Survey-2017, the most liveable cities in the world are Melbourne, Vienna and Vancouver.

Here's how real estate is shaping up in these cities:

Melbourne (Australia)

After five years of surging prices, the market value of the nation's homes has expanded to $7.3 trillion.

The interest rates are record-low interest rates, there are tax breaks and mortgage lending is the order of the day.

According to the data available with the Bank for International Settlements, Australian households are second-most indebted people in the world, next only to Switzerland.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that property prices in Australia have risen second-most among G20 economies ever since 2000, next only to South Africa. 

The IMF also projects that Australia's lenders are among the world's most exposed to housing debt.

Talking about oversupply, Australia had 1,34,000 more unoccupied homes than is needed for a population growth over 15 years says an Australian National University study.

The government is looking at 1,00,000 new lots to create 17 new suburbs around Melbourne's fringes in a bid to tackle housing affordability.

Vienna (Austria)

About 60 per cent of the population lives in social housing projects.

Rents are set so that no one has to part with more than 30 per cent of their income.

There is no housing shortage in the city.

According reports, Vienna gets $676.7-million a year from the Austrian government for housing and other housing taxes contribute to it. On the whole, the yearly housing budget up to about $900-million a year. 

Vienna also offers land for development to architects and developers to put their creativity into building projects for mixed income, mixed tenure with a high urban design.

The city also has a different zoning culture altogether and families are not averse to a multifamily housing dwelling.

Vancouver (Canada)

A recent report by the name Royal LePage says that the city is so unaffordable that an average family earns about $81,608 but the median property price is more than $1.4 million.

The government introduced interest subsidies so as to help first-time homebuyers but it ended up with bidding wars that led to small condos selling for a very high price.

It would take 29.47 years to save for a downpayment of any kind of home in Vancouver, National Bank's Housing Affordability Monitor said.

The above would mean that a household would have to roll out 80 per cent of their household income to afford a house in Vancouver.

The government is looking at a higher property tax to use the funds to address housing supply and such other critical social issues in Vancouver. Property tax may be hiked by another 3.9 per cent in the 2018 budget.

Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation has remarked, “Vancouver remains in what it labels the red zone for overall vulnerability based on categories that included overheating, price acceleration, overvaluation and overbuilding.”

Also read: Learn From Thy Neighbour: Singapore Boasts 90% Home Ownership