The ratio of home price to income in Beijing is now 27 to 1, five times the international average, according to a real estate agency, which made the calculation based on government statistics, the National Business Daily reported today.

Data from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics indicate if a family has two wage-earners both making the city's average income of 28,289 yuan (US$4,142) in the first half of the year, their annual household income would be 113,000 yuan.

However, this family would pay approximately 3.04 million yuan on average for an apartment, 27 times their total income, according to Zhang Dawei, marketing director of Golden Keys, a Beijing-based real estate agency.

However, an official from the Statistics Bureau told the National Business Daily that, this ratio on its own may not be so actual, because it does not include usage costs like taxes, maintenance, expenses, which are much lower in China,

The reasonable ratio should be 3 to 6 times a family's annual income following the international standards, the National Business Daily noted.

(chinadaily.com.cn August 22, 2009)