Buying a 100m2 home in the Grand Duchy costs 246 times the average salary after taxes, making it one of the European countries where residents have to save up the longest for a house, according to a study.

The analysis published by BestBrokers.com studied the price of houses, average net monthly income, inflation and mortgage rages adjusted with inflation to determine which countries in the world have the most and least accessible housing market.

Luxembourg ranked 29th out of the 34 European countries compared in the ranking, with residents needing 246 real net monthly wages to buy a 100m2 home. This means paying 20 and a half years of average wages on a house.

Denmark was the most accessible (114), followed by Ireland (123) and Sweden (129), while Slovenia (261), Czech Republic (274) and Slovakia (297) were the least accessible. Neighbouring Belgium (132), Germany (185) and France (197) ranked better than Luxembourg, with Belgium fifth in the European section.

The study based comparisons off the number of average monthly salaries that residents earned in order to counter for the variations in prices and income across countries, and did not take into consideration other cost-of-living expenses.

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Further out, South Africa was the most affordable country in the world to buy a home on an average income, the study found, with residents needing 71 times the average national monthly income to purchase a home, or five years and 11 months, followed by the US where it came up to 76 months, or six years and five months.

In Nepal, 100m2 cost 684 real average salaries (57 years), and in Turkey 631, or 52 years and 7 months.   

“Huge variations may occur due to the use of average values,” the study said “Comparing the mortgage rates around the world is really tricky. For this analysis, the team at Bestbrokers decided to look at only interest rates for mortgages where the rates are fixed for a minimum of five years. Of course, for some countries, this means 10, 15 or even 30-year fixed rates.”