Muscat – In most countries, house prices continue to rise faster than wages, making home ownership an increasing struggle for aspiring owners. However, a new study has found that Muscat has the seventh least expensive properties in the world – at US$751/sqm.

That’s according to NetCredit, a global online lender, which analysed over 800,000 online property listings for 73 global capitals and calculated the median house price for each city in total and per square metre.

According to the research, a home in Monaco (US$52,000/ sqm) costs three times more than any other capital.

At the other end of the spectrum, the city with the least cost per sqm is Havana in Cuba (US$234/sqm).

Muscat and Pretoria are where homes are most affordable when taking into account yearly salaries and median home price. It takes 4.7 years in Muscat and Pretoria to buy a home, while it takes 6.9 years in Belfast in Northern Ireland, 7.6 years in Bucharest in Romania and 8.7 years in Bandar Seri Bagawan in Brunei, making them the five most affordable cities for home buyers.

‘COVID-19 radically shook up our idea of where and how we wanted to live, and it also radically altered many peoples’ options for doing so. On balance, prices rose, but now, in the fallout of the pandemic and with the added complication of the energy crisis and war in Ukraine, they’re on their way down,’ stated NetCredit.