Priced out of buying: Seoul's rent gap in global context

Affordability comparisons across cities are usually made with one number. Two are needed. The price-to-income ratio shows whether households can buy; the rent-to-income ratio shows what renting costs instead. Both draw on Numbeo, a crowd-sourced cost-of-living database. The first is Numbeo's own ratio. The second is Remarble's: the rent on a one-bedroom flat in the city centre divided by the average monthly net salary, both in US dollars. It captures the burden on a single earner renting in the centre; it does not measure what households spend on housing. Seoul ranks near the top on the first measure and at the bottom on the second, and the gap between those two positions is what an investor in Seoul rental housing is underwriting.