UK house prices ‘least affordable ever’

That list is very misleading though.

Firstly Venezuela; there are multiple websites out there that can explain this far better than I can but, in a nutshell the 'real' value of the Bolivar fuerte is far, far less than the official rate meaning in practice that figure is way off.

Secondly, it ignores the fact that in the developing world most countries have two tier economies. Take Colombia as an example (somewhere I have professional dealings so am familiar with the jobs/property market). The website lists the price to income ratio as around 20.

Recently I considered a job offer in Bogotá. The salary worked out to about £35k (at the time; exchange rate is not a useful tool here because of frequent fluctuations but prices expressed in COP are so alien you a uk reader I will use £ here for clarity), only a view grand less than what I get paid here in the UK for a similar (not very senior) role.

Believe it or not, property in bogota is not as cheap as you'd expect. However, you can (or certainly could at 2016 prices) get a brand new luxury 3 bedroom apartment in North Bogotá (somewhere like Barrio Niza, a short bus ride away from Calle 100, Colombias version of the City) for about £90k.

To put that in context, it's the equivalent of a newly qualified accountant or solicitor, say, being able to buy a luxury condo in Canary Wharf for less than 3x salary. You can get a trendy new York loft style apartment in uber trendy Chapinero for a lot less (but security might be an issue). Admittedly that job was with the bogota office of (insert name of very well known uk consultancy business here) so was on the high side but other jobs in professional services and the oil and gas industry will pay broadly comparable salaries.

In fact property is comparatively so cheap for professionals over there that there's almost no mortgage market as majority of transactions are cash. Property's such a great investment there you're even seeing places in more south (traditionally the poor end of bogota) start to go for similar money as people clock on to buy to let (good luck evicting problem tenants down there though.....).

The flip side to that of course is the steep (not really a big enough word) drop off in earnings between the small middle class and erm, basically everyone else. There are thousands (between 2000 and 5000 depending on the rate) COP to the £, so much so that it seems ludicrous that anything would be priced in hundreds but there are people who exist at that level. A single journey on the transmilenio (their version of the tube, kind of) costs about 2000 cop. During a recent visit the mayor put it up by 200 (about 2p at the time). There were riots.

This is a long winded way of saying, comparing like for like, property is far more affordable in the developing world than in the UK. There is no uk equivalent to the kind of jobs which exist in south america or the disparity between state and private sector for example (check out how much a teacher or a cop makes in Brazil or colombia for example, then add yourself why there's so much corruprion) so using snow average salary is not a good comparison.

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