Hong Kong apartment prices hit $27,753 per square meter as market recovers

Hong Kong now costs $27,753 per square meter to buy a city-center apartment, cementing its spot as the world's most expensive housing market while its livability ranking slides.

The price tag keeps climbing

Deutsche Bank's Mapping the World's Prices 2026 report puts Hong Kong ahead of Zurich, Seoul, Singapore and Geneva on residential property costs, up from $26,749 per square meter in the 2025 edition and $25,946 the year before. Even after a roughly 25% drop from the 2021 peak, no city comes close.

The recovery is now clearly underway. The Rating and Valuation Department logged eight straight months of year-on-year price increases through January 2026 and a 3.7% rise across 2025, the first annual uptick since prices topped out. J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley forecast 10% to 15% price growth in 2026, per Reuters.

Demographia's latest survey keeps Hong Kong first for housing unaffordability for the 16th consecutive year, at 14.1 times median annual income for a standard flat. UBS's 2025 Global Real Estate Bubble Index reached the same figure: 14 years of income to buy a 60-square-meter apartment.

What it costs a nomad each month

Central one-bedroom rents run $1,800 to $2,200 a month and expat cost-of-living aggregators peg a single person's monthly budget at $2,400 to $2,761 before discretionary spending. Local guides put a modest single-expat lifestyle at HK$30,000 to HK$50,000 ($3,830 to $6,380) a month, with couples at HK$50,000 to HK$90,000 and families at HK$80,000 to HK$150,000-plus, driven almost entirely by rent.

That math means a remote worker signing a one-year lease in a central district should budget roughly $22,000 to $26,000 on rent alone before factoring in the forecast 10% to 15% price and rent pressure through 2026. Mercer's 2024 Cost of Living Survey already ranks Hong Kong the world's most expensive city for expatriates, ahead of Singapore, Zurich and Geneva.

Livability slips as costs bite

Deutsche Bank dropped Hong Kong to 55th of 69 cities for quality of life, down from 48th, citing housing costs, pollution and long commutes that cancel out high salaries. Nomad platforms still score the city 10/10 on internet and 9/10 on safety, but affordability sits near 4/10, a split that makes basing yourself in Hong Kong a calculation for high earners rather than budget-conscious remote workers, with Seoul and Singapore gaining ground as regional alternatives.