2025年IMD智慧城市指数：住房负担能力挑战日益严峻

Table of contentsTable of contents3The housing affordability challenge:A growing concern5The IMD World Competitiveness Center11User guide12How to read a profile13Methodology15Sources162025 results17In 2025 city ranking orderand 2024 comparison18City profiles21Abu Dhabi22Abuja23Accra24Algiers25Al-Khobar26AlUla27Amman28Amsterdam29Ankara30Astana31Athens32AucklandBangkokBarcelonaBeijingBeirutBelfastBengaluruBerlinBilbaoBirminghamBogotaBolognaBordeauxBostonBrasiliaBratislavaBrisbaneBrusselsBucharestBudapestBuenos AiresBusanCairo IMD Smart City Index2025The housing affordability challenge:A growing concern 2025 has barely gotten underway and yet significant tradetensions, policy shifts, and weakened business and consumerconfidence appear to have set the tone for the year. Theaggressive trade stance adopted by the United States – whichnotably includes substantial tariff hikes on imports from China,Mexico, and Canada – has, as we know, triggered retaliatorymeasures, re-escalating trade wars. In 2018, during his firstterm, President Trump started increasing tariffs on goods fromChina -first on “only” 8% of Chinese exports but covering over66% by early 2020.While the extent, magnitude, and duration of current tariffincreases remain uncertain, past lessons from the 2018US-China trade war suggest that the direct participants will allexperience economic losses (Caliendo and Parro, 2023), whilethe impact on other economies will be more difficult to predict;there may be some winners – especially in Southeast Asia whereproduction can be more easily relocated (Fajgelbaum et al.,2024).Inflationary pressures remain a concern, particularly inindustries heavily reliant on imported materials, such asconstruction. Higher tariffs on steel (and potentially lumber) areexpected to increase development costs, putting further stresson an already-constrained housing supply.The housing affordability challenge:A growing concernMaking housing more affordable is the top priority for most ofthe respondents of the 2025 IMD Smart City Survey. In 110 outof 146 cities, affordable housing is mentioned as a priority by atleast half of the respondents in the city. The issue is particularlyfelt in Dublin or Vancouver, where about 90% of the IMD SmartCity Survey respondents expressed concern over housingaffordability. Respondents in the Middle East agree: about 80%of respondents from AlUla or Dubai identify affordable housingas a priority area.In a deglobalized world where countries seem more out for theirown interests than in the recent memorable past, we remain unitedby the issue of affordable housing.DublinSan FranciscoReykjavikMunichThe HagueGenevaBelfastAmsterdamTaipei CityHong KongAbu DhabiTel AvivCape TownWarsawKrakowNicosiaRigaShenzhenMedellinBuenos Aires0102030405060708090100(%)Figure 1. Percentage of respondents identifyingaffordable housing as a priority area HangzhouHyderabadTunisBucharestPercentageAverage MedanHousing has become increasingly unaffordable formany households over the past couple of years.According to IMF data, it is currently less affordable than duringthe house price bubble that preceded the 2007-08 globalfinancial crisis (Biljanovska et al., 2023). This harsh statistic isreflected in the responses in the IMD Smart City Survey: in citiesas far apart geographically as Lisbon, Vancouver, Dublin, andReykjavik some nine in 10 respondents report difficulties findinghousing that costs less than a third of their income.Conversely, in Chinese cities such as Guangzhou (a Tier 1city) and Hangzhou and Chongqing (both new Tier 1 cities),perceptions of affordability are significantly more optimistic:just three in 10 respondents report difficulties finding housingthat costs less than a third of their income. However, thisfinding needs to be viewed in the context of China’s ongoingreal estate downturn. In 2020, China introduced measures tocurb excessive leverage in real estate and de-risk the sector.Stalled projects and liquidity shortages led to defaults bymajor developers like Evergrande and Country Garden, furtherdeepening the sector’s slump. Despite efforts to stabilizethe market through public investments and interest rate cuts,business and consumer confidence remains low, far below pre-pandemic levels. Rising interest rates, persistent inflation, and elevated energycosts have priced large segments of the population out of bothhomeownership and rental markets. A major driver of risinghousing costs is the imbalance between supply and demand.Restrictive zoning laws and regulatory barriers have contributedto high housing costs in countries such as the US (Glaeser etal., 2005), the UK (Hilber and Vermuelen, 2016), and otherOECD countries (Caldera and Johansson, 2013). This evidence isechoed in our data: over 70% of respondents from an Americanor a British city list housing as a priority area. Moreover, abouteight in ten respondents in San Francisco, Denver, Seattle,Boston, Cardiff, or Glasgow report that finding housing thatcosts