Saudi Arabia, March 18, 2019:   Knight Frank is pleased to announce the release of the inaugural edition of Urban Futures, a report which tackles the increasingly prominent global topic of housing affordability and discusses  how cities are looking to alleviate affordability pressures. For the first issue the focus has been put on six cities which have been at the forefront of the affordability debate. A spotlight has been included on Riyadh, where we have seen affordability come to the forefront of the agenda particularly as cultural and social attitudes change at a rapid pace.

 

In the report, 32 cities around the world were assessed and ranked based on a Global Affordability Monitor to understand the scale of the affordability challenge in each one of them.  Three important elements were taken into account in the assessment including: house price to income ratio, rent as a proportion of income and historical real house price growth compared to real income growth.

 

 

Raya Majdalani, Research Manager at Knight Frank Middle East commented: “City-wide average affordability statistics are useful but they fail to highlight disparities in housing costs within sub-markets or across the income spectrum. Therefore, even cities in the ‘most affordable’ quadrant still have room for improvement and may not be affordable to lower income groups. The case of Riyadh illustrates well the fact that ‘affordability is relative’. In fact, the challenge entailed by housing affordability is growing despite the city’s presence in the ‘most affordable’ quadrant status.”

 

Shehzad Jamal, Partner Healthcare & Education at Knight Frank Middle East commented: “Affordable housing schemes are best developed alongside typologies with varying socioeconomic profiles. We believe healthcare and education assets provide an excellent opportunity for cities to partner with the private sector to both service their communities and build economically diverse neighbourhoods.”