I'd say worse. IBM employees in India get paid around 500,000 rupees in India. A non-cramped 2 bedroom apartment in a decent area in the big cities (Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi ) will set you back 10,000,000 rupees easily.

That is 20 times their salary. I'd say that's a higher multiplier per unit salary, than for the US. Also note that living just outside the city (as people in the US do) isn't always an option, unless you are up for a 2+2 hour commute daily.

The numbers look similar in Vancouver and Toronto. It seems to be an emergent trend in the global housing markets.

Except Tokyo, Vienna, Montreal, Germany. Almost like we could apply their policies in SV.

Apologies for my ignorance but I was under the impression that residents of Tokyo live in extremely tiny apartments due to cost. Is that wrong?

The 500,000 you mentioned doesn't seem correct to me for IBM. It is the lowest in the IT sector targeted to freshers from substandard colleges. In most first and second tier college, the average for IT is 15,00,000 to 25,00,000 at the time of joining.

Those numbers are far too high - it's extremely rare to find anyone who will pay those wages, even in tier 1 cities for experienced candidates.

By way of comparison, plenty of people in the UK entering their first IT job would make less than the equivalent of 25,00,000!

I am studying in college that has is not known by most people in India, and the official average here is around 18 LPA. I have the stats from the placement unit of our college. For IITB and BITS Pilani, I can confirm from friends it's around 27 LPA. This is one public stat I can find: http://www.selaqui.org/iit-jee/placement.php. Average is 24.67 LPA for CS, and it's from 2011-12. I don't know why you reacted with so much disbelief, when every one and every newspaper tells that average for IT placement is very good.

I reacted with such disbelief because I know many people that work for big consultancies such as Capgemini, Cognizant and Infosys, and even in tier 1 and 2 cities with 10+ years' experience they don't make that much. Hell, many consultancies bill their EU and US clients less than those figures!

I also hire directly for our own office in Mumbai from time-to-time, so I know that market rates are.

Just look at any jobs board - even for experienced devs, its rare to find such high paying jobs, e.g.

http://www.timesjobs.com/jobs-in-mumbai/it-jobs

Companies such as Wipro, TCS, Cognizant and Infosys are considered lowest in this sector. No kidding, they pick up 1000s in a single day from a single college. e.g. see http://www.srmuniv.ac.in/placement/statistics_2015.html

> SRM University sets new placement record of 6064 on Day 1

> The highest offer was from Wipro 1641, followed by TCS 1611, Cognizant 1506 and Infosys 1306.

You can imagine the quality of interview when they have interviewed at least 1500 students on a single day.

That is because you are looking at a cherry picked data to make your point. From the link: The department-wise average and highest salaries are shown below. The overall average and highest salaries stand at 8.98 LPA and 68.5 LPA respectively.

So the average salary is 8.98 lakh. Unlike what you might like to believe there are many non-IT people working in IT, specially in places like IBM. So their salary will be even lower than 8.98 lakhs.

Of course.. It's not cherry picking. I said IT sector is doing pretty well in India. I never claimed anything other than that. Most majors have hard time finding any job in their sector.

And the point I am trying to make is - It is not the spring you believe it to be. Let's take a look at actual IBM India salary, should we? Here's the data from glassdoor: https://www.glassdoor.co.in/Salary/IBM-Salaries-E354.htm

Most freshers get near to Associate Systems Engineer. The salary range is between 3.7 lakhs to 8.65 lakhs. This is farcry from what you believe it is. Yes, there are colleges whose salaries are pushed to the limit thanks to the startups but majority are not as well of as you might think.

> And the point I am trying to make is - It is not the spring you believe it to be. Let's take a look at actual IBM India salary, should we? Here's the data from glassdoor: https://www.glassdoor.co.in/Salary/IBM-Salaries-E354.htm

Yeah, I concede. For some reason, I had the belief that IBM is one of the better paying company in India, but it pays on the level of inferior consultancies.

The numbers you mentioned are towards top end of industry. Most people I know with 5-10 yrs of experience make less than 10,00,000 in any of the major IT company.

Anecdata is a ~10x multiplier in SV for the kind of housing you describe.

London has a 30-40x.

50k salary 1.5-2mil GBP for a well size 2 bed in a good area.

That is an exaggeration, or your standards are much much higher than mine. I live in a good area that attracts bankers and minor celebrities. Flats of the type you describe are 500-600K. Still expensive...

Depends if you mean in the City of London, in Greater London, "on the tube" or "inside the M25" ;-)

Apparently you can get a 2-bedroom flat in Bexley for £150,000....

The 10 cheapest places to buy in London: where to find the best-value homes in the capital, from Barking and Dagenham to Hounslow http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/buying/londo...