Housing is top priority for London's next mayor

New York

THE bookies and polls called it correctly. Londoners chose the son of Pakistani immigrants as their next mayor over the Eton-educated heir to a family fortune. Now, it will be up to Mayor Sadiq Khan to fulfil his promise to address the greatest source of London's growing inequality: the city's housing crisis.

London housing is both expensive and scarce. The average price of a London home is now £531,000 (S$1.04 million), about 10 times the average Londoner's income and 44 per cent greater than before the financial crisis. Housing is 20 per cent cheaper in Paris, 45 per cent cheaper in Rome and 56 per cent cheaper in Berlin. Even Stockholm, another city known for its high-priced housing, is 32 per cent cheaper than London.