My London Flat Versus My New York Apartment: Howard Chua-Eoan

New Yorkers and Londoners have a grass-is-greener relationship: Things always seem better in the city on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The GIG envy reared its head this week when the UK’s Resolution Foundation released statistics for residential floorspace per person in major urban centers — and London came up a miserly 33 square meters (355 square feet) to New York’s 43 square meters (462 square feet). In fact, Tokyo — infamous for miniscule quarters — tied with London. Does that make Britain’s capital a worse place to live? I thought I’d weigh in with my experience.

I have the privilege of property in both cities — owning ...