Welcome to the world's poorest expensive city

AS if Metro Manila needed anything to make it less attractive, a recent study by UK-based mortgage company Online Mortgage Advisor has found that in terms of housing costs, the city is one of the least affordable places to live in Asia and among the most expensive on the planet. While this is probably good news for the real estate business here, the implications for everyone else are rather grim.

The study involved 352 cities worldwide and compared the annual average salary to the average residential property price per square meter, and the average annual rental for a one-bedroom apartment.