Only those in London, New York pay more for central-area housing
Eric Beauchesne
Sun
OTTAWA — Executive homes near downtown Vancouver are the third-costliest in the world, a survey of 31 cities has found.
Vancouver ranked third in price, behind London and New York, followed by Calgary which ranked seventh, Toronto ninth, Ottawa 13th, Montreal 19th, and Halifax 20th.
The Century 21 survey compared 15 cities in Canada with 16 cities around the world in terms of prices and commuting times to their downtown core.
It found that the 10 most expensive housing markets for executive home buyers working in the downtown business districts are London, at $5.68 million; New York $2.5 million; Vancouver $1.55 million; Sydney $1.4 million; Paris $1.39 million; Seoul $1.25 million; Calgary $1.2 million; Nicosia in Cyprus $1 million; Toronto $890,000; and Victoria $850,000.
“Whether executive house prices are at the high or low end of the range, in Canada or elsewhere in the world, depends on the current state of the local economies — and our survey reflects that Vancouver and Calgary are booming whether you compare them to cities in the rest of Canada or to cities around the world,” said Don Lawby, president of Century 21 Canada.
The 10 least expensive markets for executive homes are in Moncton, N.B., $249,900; Singapore, $304,135; London, Ont, $325,000; Bogota, Colombia, $368,852; St. John’s, N.L., $379,000; Charlottetown, $379,000; Saskatoon, $429,000; Winnipeg, $450,000; Istanbul, $471,927; and Edmonton, $489,900.
“Another way to view the survey results and to provide another observation into the lifestyle of executives around the world is to compare the price to the size of the home,” Lawby said.
“This shows that markets where homes are traditionally smaller — such as Taipei and Tokyo — move toward the top of the list, while Toronto, Victoria and others fall from the top 10.”
Based on the price per square foot, the 10 most expensive housing markets in the world for executive homes are London, England $3,156; Paris $1,163; Seoul $1,097; Calgary $800; Sydney $722; Taipei, $613; Vancouver $574; Athens $491; New York $480; and Tokyo $385.
Meanwhile, commuting times from typical executive homes in Canadian cities to the downtown also compare favourably, ranging from a 45-minute drive in Toronto to 15 minutes in Winnipeg. Commuting times for other cities were 40 minutes in Montreal, 30 minutes in Vancouver, 25 minutes in Calgary, and 30 minutes in Halifax.
In New York, a commute from a typical executive home would be 45 minutes, London 30 minutes, Paris 30 minutes, Sydney 15 minutes, Tokyo 45 minutes, and Seoul, 30 minutes.
Executives working downtown in Canada’s regional hub cities, such as Halifax, Winnipeg and Saskatoon, face house prices and daily commute times that rank with the world’s least expensive capital cities such as Moscow, Singapore and Istanbul, the study concluded.
In between are Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City and Victoria, where executives working downtown typically pay house prices and have daily commute times that compare with Tokyo, Taipei and Mexico City, it said.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007