San Francisco, where rent is the highest in the world

The top three most expensive cities to rent across the world are in the US – San Francisco, New York and Boston – closely followed by Hong Kong, the 2017 Rental Index, produced by British-based online realtor Nested, found.

The company’s Rent Affordability Index (RAI) ranks 87 cities based on “current market listings for all locations,” from San Francisco to Dubai to Zurich.

San Francisco has long had the highest rents in the country by almost every metric, but previous reports have declared the city more expensive than famously elite destinations abroad. While a mere $0.20 per square foot kept New York City from the top spot, it wasn’t surprising that San Francisco took the top honor as the most expensive city for renters in the US. At an average rental price of $4.95 per square foot, single renters in San Francisco will pay on average $2,077.96 per month in rent, while the average monthly cost for families comes out to $3,942.82. The average annual income a single person needs to earn in order to rent in San Francisco is nearly $86,000. Meanwhile, families of four will need to bring home just over $163,000 per year to be able to afford to rent in the city. And while San Francisco remains a hotbed for tech, the city has struggled with limited supply and very high demand.

As usual, it’s all about the method: For example, when the Global Property Guide surveys median rents worldwide, places like Monte Carlo, where in 2014 it cost on average over $10,000/month for a home, shoot to number one.

When the Global Cities Business Alliance calculated the price of an apartment as a percentage of the average resident’s income in 2015, Beijing was the most expensive, and San Francisco ranked eighth. On the Nested report, Cairo was found to be the cheapest city to rent property, costing 28¢ a square foot.

The income requirements were estimated by looking at the recommended size of a dwelling for households of different sizes from urban planning authorities, and the income required to cover the rent and living costs of those tenants. 

The 10 most expensive rental cities in the world (price per square metre)
1 San Francisco, US – $4.95
2 New York City, US – $4.75
3 Boston, US – $4.10
4 Hong Kong, Hong Kong – $3.83
5 Dubai, UAE – $3.53
6 Singapore, Singapore – $3.34
7 Washington D.C., US – $3.33
8 Geneva, Switzerland – $3.09
9 Seattle, US – $3.07
10 Sydney, Australia – $2.93