SANTO DOMINGO.- Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, is the Latin American city where the price of housing rentals increased the most in the period 2018-2022, and the seventh in the world, when comparing the average salary that a worker must allocate to rent a house.
According to research by the British company Online Mortgage Advisor, in the four years mentioned, housing rentals registered an increase of 87.9% in the Dominican capital, in relation to the average salary needed to spend on rent.
The report notes that in 2018 the rental capacity in Santo Domingo was high because someone living here had to spend 110% of the average monthly salary, but in 2022 this figure increased to 198% of an average salary.
“This increase is not only the largest in Latin America, but also the seventh largest in the world,” the research states.
Exploring rental affordability in cities around the world between 2018 and 2022, the analysis revealed that 45.5% of the cities included in the study became less affordable between 2018 and 2022.
Other Caribbean cities occupy the second and third positions with the highest difference when it comes to renting: Guatemala City, with an increase of 68.9%; and the tourist city of Cancun, Mexico, with an increase of 36.6%, the report adds.
Brasilia and Buenos Aires are two other Latin American capitals in the ranking as the least affordable to rent in comparison to 2018 rents and salaries.
Study Details
This research compared the average net monthly salary in each city with the average cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment in the city center to calculate changes in affordability between 2018 and 2022. 422 cities with available historical data were considered. You can see the complete Latin American data here.
The data for each city used in the analysis was obtained from Numbeo. The metrics considered were the price of an apartment (with only one bedroom or a studio apartment) in the city center; the average net monthly salary (after tax); the price per square meter to buy an apartment in the city center; and the cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment in the city center.
Using the average annual net salary of workers in cities around the world, the research compared how many square meters of local property could be bought at the average price between 2018 and 2022, finding that during that period, 60.7% of cities became less affordable for locals.
Latin American cities where housing prices exceed salaries
When analyzing which places in Latin America housing prices became less affordable, comparing the square meters that an employee can acquire, based on the average annual salary in each city, the analysis determined that Brasilia saw the worst change in property purchasing power in Latin America.
Santiago, Chile, ranks second. The Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte and Buenos Aires are the third most difficult cities to buy a home in. Medellín, Colombia; São Paulo, Brazil; and Lima, Peru are other Latin American cities that appear in the ranking, showing an increase in the price difference between square meters and average salaries.
Sources: Forbes Central America
https://www.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/content/priced-out-property-2023/#home
