London city centre flats are the second most expensive in the world

Research from personal finance comparison website finder.com reveals that the average price for a two-bed city centre flat in the UK is £227,000 – almost £100,000 more than in Europe (£131,000) and over double the US average of £111,000.

With a cost per square metre of £3,839, the UK is the 16th most expensive nation(s) in the world for a central flat, with prices 52% above the global average.

London is far more expensive than the rest of the UK, with a central flat generally costing buyers over four times more than the UK average. The average price of a two-bed flat in the capital is £788,000, or £13,328 per square metre, making it the world’s second most expensive city to buy an apartment in, after Hong Kong.

However, August saw the biggest month-on-month drop in UK house prices in six years, fuelled by uncertainty over the housing market and Brexit, while BofE Governor Mark Carney has suggested that a ‘no deal’ Brexit could see house prices drop by a third. So both London and the UK may slide down these rankings.

Globally, the costliest country for buying a city centre flat is Hong Kong, where a two-bed apartment would set you back £1,280,000. This is followed by Singapore at £781,000 and Switzerland at £543,000.

After Hong Kong, London and Singapore, the most expensive cities in the world for urban flats are Beijing at £676,000, Zurich at £670,000 and Shanghai at £667,000.

The cheapest nation of the 91 countries with available data is Egypt. Here a two-bed city centre flat only costs £27,000 on average. The cheapest city is Sumy in Ukraine, where a flat would cost £20,000.

The 10 most expensive countries for city centre flats

To see the full list of average flat prices by country and city, alongside an interactive map, visit: https://www.finder.com/uk/world-cost-of-a-flat