HDB flats in Singapore and apartments in Melbourne are the only two residential markets in the Asia Pacific region that offer homes at less than five times the median income, according to a market report on the affordability of homes in the Asia Pacific region published by the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

The think-tank report, titled “ULI Asia Pacific Home Attainability Index”, considers homes attainable in each market where median home prices are less than five times median annual income. Likewise, rents are considered affordable when median monthly rents are no more than 30% of median monthly income.

In Singapore, median HDB prices in 2024 were 4.3 times median annual income, while private home prices were 16.9 times median annual income. However, the ULI report notes that the number of completed HDB flats entering the market has slowed in recent years, which has caused overall attainability in the public housing market to fall compared to the 3.7 times median annual household income in 2022.

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The rising price of HDB flats in the resale market and the increase in the proportion of resale flats transacted at over $1 million came to the fore during the country’s recent general election. Government policies to address these concerns focus on increasing the supply of new HDB flats over the next two years, as well as more subsidies for middle- and lower-income buyers.

Other noteworthy cities mentioned in the report include Hong Kong, where apartments were 23.4 times the median annual household income in 2024, an improvement from 26.5 times in 2022. However, rental affordability in Hong Kong has worsened and was 72% of median monthly income last year, up from 70% in 2022 and 69% in 2023.

Strong migration inflows into Hong Kong from mainland Chinese professionals is one factor contributing to the worsening rental situation, as Hong Kong authorities approved about 92,000 applications under the Top Talent Pass Scheme by the end of last year.

But Hong Kong locals have also opted to rent as falling apartment prices and higher interest rates cause many to shelve home purchases, expecting prices to continue falling and a more stable economic outlook.

Meanwhile, the repressions of China’s housing bubble collapse in 2021 continue to reverberate. Price-to-income ratios remain highly stretched, at between 20 and 23 times in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, and 10 to 17 times in other major cities.

In March, unsold commercial housing stock reached 421.58 million sqm, equivalent to about four to six million residential homes, according to data compiled by ULI. This figure excludes distressed assets like mortgage defaults and incomplete projects.

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Research by ULI suggests that larger cities may eventually absorb the excess supply, while lower-tier cities face a more challenging way out of the crisis as weak demand, fragile local economies, and population stagnation impede recovery efforts.