NYC apartments are (way) CHEAPER than London and Paris to buy but rents are 4x higher, what is going on?

<!-- SC_OFF --><div class="md"><p>Hi everyone! So I am half French half British with strong ties to NYC and a friend of mine just sold an apartment in greenwich village earlier this year and the sale price per sqft didn’t even match what the same flat would go for in the 16th or 7th arrondissement in Paris but the rent that same flat was pulling in NYC was something like 4x what you’d pay for the equivalent in paris so 4 times!!</p> <p>same purchase price though. how does that even make sense? And it’s not just one apartment. Zoom out and NYC and Paris are basically tied on price per sqft to buy, West London (notting hill, marylebone, mayfair) is actually meaningfully more expensive than any NYC neighbourhood to buy, but NYC rents are dramatically higher than both. Like NYC is one of the most expensive cities in the world to rent yet the buy prices are kind of normal by global standards? Meaning in any normal market this gap should close right. High rents plus reasonable purchase prices means people buy instead of rent, prices go up, yields compress, things normalise... but in NYC the gap just sits there year after year so I’m just trying to wrap my head around the WHY??</p> <p>WHY doesn’t everyone paying 7 or 8k a month just BUY? What am I missing?? it can’t only be down payments because if you can pay that rent you have the income to save or you already have. it can’t only be property taxes because europe has way uglier tax stacks when you add stamp duty and wealth tax and all that and still trades at a premium</p> <p>what am i actually missing here. is it co-op boards, mortgage stuff, some tax thing, cultural. genuinely curious? Lmk </p> </div><!-- SC_ON --> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Pauldrs75"> /u/Pauldrs75 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskNYC/comments/1svr88u/nyc_apartments_are_way_cheaper_than_london_and/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskNYC/comments/1svr88u/nyc_apartments_are_way_