City Mayors: Cost of living - The world's most expensive cities 2012

Shanty town above Luanda, the world's 'most expensive' city

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The lives of expatriates in the
world’s most expensive cities
A review of Mercer's Cost of Living Survey

23 July 2013: For very different reasons, European and African cities are named as the world’s costliest cities for expatriates. While high earnings and strong demand for quality housing drive up prices in Europe, it is the special needs of expatriates that make living in some of Africa’s booming cities extremely expensive. In its 2013 Cost of Living report, US-based consultants Mercer name the Angolan capital Luanda as the costliest city for US expatriates. Moscow and Tokyo are ranked two and three. Switzerland has three cities - Geneva, Zurich and Bern - in the top ten.

In July 2012, similar research by ECA International ranked Tokyo first, followed by Oslo, Geneva, Nahoya and Zurich. A report published by the Swiss Bank UBS in 2012 has Oslo as the world's most expensive city, followed by Zurich, Tokyo and Geneva. Reseach published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in March 2013 found that Tokyo was the most expensive city in the world.

The 10 most expensive cities
according to Mercer, UBS , ECA and EIU

Rank	Mercer (2013)	UBS (2012)	ECA (2012)	EIU (2013)
1	Luanda	Oslo	Tokyo	Tokyo
2	Moscow	Zurich	Oslo	Osaka
3	Tokyo	Tokyo	Geneva	Sydney
4	N’Djamena	Geneva	Nagoya	Oslo
5	Singapore	Copenhagen	Zurich	Melbourne
6	Hong Kong	New York City	Yokohama	Singapore
7	Geneva	Luxembourg	Bern	Zurich
8	Zurich	Stockholm	Stavanger	Paris
9	Bern	Caracas	Basel	Caracas
10	Sydney	London	Kobe	Geneva

The fundamental flaw of all cost-of-living surveys is that they convert local prices into US dollars, which means that any changes are as much the result of currency fluctuations as of price inflation. In surveys by ECA, UBS, Mercer and EIU the cost of living in cities outside the US dollar zone becomes more expensive if the dollar weakens against local currencies even when prices remain unchanged or indeed fall. Probably the most useful figures are those by UBS because the also examine income and purchasing power. The research by ECA, Mercer and EIU is for the benefit of US employees sent abroad by their companies.

Mercer's 2013 Cost of Living survey
The cost of housing is typically the biggest expense for expatriates and it plays an important part in determining the rankings. The Russian capital of Moscow follows Luanda as the second most expensive city because of high costs for rental accommodation and imported goods and services commonly purchased by expatriates commanding a premium. A luxury two bedroom unfurnished apartment rental for one month in Moscow is US$4,600 a month or 14 times as much than Karachi. Rounding out the top five most expensive cities for expatriate living, which also have pricey rental accommodations, are Tokyo, the Chad city Ndjamena and Singapore.

Price comparison of selected items
(All priced in US dollars)

City	Monthly rent, 2-bedroom luxury apartment	Hamburger meal or similar	Cup of coffee	1 liter of petrol
Luanda	6500.00	20.06	3.88	0.63
Moscow	4600.00	6.42	8.29	1.04
Tokyo	4513.34	7.31	6.98	1.74
N'Djamena	n/a	25.51	3.06	0.98
Singapore	3794.94	5.61	4.84	1.76
Hong Kong	7091.74	3.54	5.67	2.23
Geneva	4349.74	12.51	6.52	2.02
Zurich	3914.77	12.51	5.98	2.02
Bern	2686.51	12.51	4.86	2.02
Sydney	2551.42	9.20	5.16	1.51

Source: Mercer’s 2013 Cost of Living Survey

While many Asian cities remained stable in the previous 12 months, a large number have gone down in the 2013 rankings due to weaker local currencies (vs. the US dollar), including the most expensive city in the 2012 rankings – Tokyo, which is ranked third this year. Singapore is ranked 5th globally. High demand for expat accommodation and goods, coupled with a strong currency, make Singapore so expensive. Sydney is also in the top 10 worldwide and the most expensive expatriate destination in the Pacific. Demand for rentals in Sydney keeps growing and supply just isn't keeping up. Other Australian cities are also relatively costly due to the strong Australian dollar. New Zealand is more affordable for expatriates.

European and African cities dominate the most expensive expatriate destinations. Luanda, Angola, is the top-ranked city. Another African city near the top was N'Djamena, Chad, ranked 4th. Expatriates living in these cities have high expenditures for appropriate accommodation, transportation and imported goods. Other African cities remain more affordable.

Moscow is second in the global rankings, also because of its high-demand rental market and expensive goods commonly purchased by expatriates. Three Swiss cities – Geneva, Zurich, and Bern – are also in the Top 10. Switzerland remains one of the costliest locations for expatriates despite decreasing or stable accommodation costs and a robust Swiss franc. Overall, the cost of living in cities across parts of Europe has gone up mildly as a result of the slight strengthening of local currencies against the US dollar.

In the Americas, cities in South America are the most expensive for expatriates. Living in some cities, particularly those in Brazil, became cheaper because of the US dollar's strengthening against local currencies. Other cities became more expensive. The cost of living in some, like Buenos Aires and Caracas, rose due to high inflation. Others, like Mexico City, are facing a strong rental market. Overall, the cost of living in other cities in Latin America and in the Caribbean remained fairly stable, according to Mercer's rankings.

New York, the base city for Mercer's Cost of Living rankings, is the most expensive city in the United States. It became costlier due to rising housing rental costs. Most US cities were stable vs the previous year's ranking, while Canadian cities generally moved slightly down in the rankings this year.

The world's most expensive big cities in 2012
(The Mercer index is based on cost of living expressed in US dollars. Therefore, if the dollar weakens against the local currency of a city, the city becomes more expensive and moves up the index, even if prices expressed in local currency remain the same or go down.)

Rank 2012	Rank 2011	City	Country
1	2	Tokyo	Japan
2	1	Luanda	Angola
3	6	Osaka	Japan
4	4	Moscow	Russia
5	5	Geneva	Switzerland
6	7	Zurich	Switzerland
6	8	Singapore	Singapore
8	3	N'Djamena	Chad
9	9	Hong Kong	Hong Kong
10	11	Nagoya	Japan
11	14	Sydney	Australia
12	10	São Paulo	Brazil
13	12	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil
14	16	Bern	Switzerland
15	21	Melbourne	Australia
16	21	Shanghai	China
17	20	Beijing	China
18	15	Oslo	Norway
19	30	Perth	Australia
20	12	Libreville	Gabon
21	17	Copenhagen	Denmark
22	19	Seoul	South Korea
23	34	Canberra	Australia
24	31	Brisbane	Australia
25	18	London	UK
26	44	Khartoum	Sudan
27	46	Adelaide	Australia
28	29	St. Petersburg	Russia
29	51	Caracas	Venezuela
30	43	Shenzhen	China
31	24	Tel Aviv	Israel
31	38	Guangzhou	China
33	32	New York City	USA
34	23	Niamey	Niger
35	70	Yangon	Myanmar
36	61	Kinshasa	Congo (Dem. Rep.)
37	27	Paris	France
38	25	Milan	Italy
39	41	Lagos	Nigeria
39	63	Bamako	Mali
41	67	Abidjan	Ivory Coast
42	34	Rome	Italy
43	55	Brazzaville	Congo
44	39	Djibouti	Djibouti
45	33	Brasilia	Brazil
46	39	Stockholm	Sweden
47	37	Nouméa	New Caledonia
48	36	Vienna	Austria
49	48	Baku	Azerbaijan
50	25	Victoria	Seychelles
50	44	Dakar	Senegal
52	91	Lomé	Togo
53	56	Douala	Cameroun
53	63	Bogota	Colombia
53	155	Conakry	Guinea
56	118	Auckland	New Zealand
57	50	Amsterdam	Netherlands
58	49	Bangui	Central African Rep.
58	52	Taipei	Taiwan
60	83	Yaoundé	Cameroun
61	59	Toronto	Canada
61	69	Jakarta	Indonesia
63	65	Vancouver	Canada
64	82	Abuja	Nigeria
65	42	Helsinki	Finland
66	101	Qingdao	China
67	75	Beirut	Lebanon
68	77	Los Angeles	USA
69	47	Prague	Czech Republic
70	74	Cotonou	Benin
71	62	Brussels	Belgium
72	58	Dublin	Ireland
72	104	Tianjin	China
74	75	Santiago	Chile
74	136	Wellington	New Zealand
76	67	Abu Dhabi	United Arab Emirates
77	53	Athens	Greece
78	60	Madrid	Spain
79	57	Bratislava	Slovakia
79	70	Istanbul	Turkey
81	80	Almaty	Kazakhstan
81	88	Bangkok	Thailand
83	93	Bandar Seri Begawan	Brunei
84	72	Luxembourg	Luxemburg
85	66	Barcelona	Spain
85	122	Shenyang	China
87	79	Montreal	Canada
88	73	Frankfurt	Germany
89	98	Pointe-à-Pitre	Guadeloupe
90	78	Munich	Germany
90	106	San Francisco CA	United States
92	96	Calgary	Canada
93	171	Maputo	Mozambique
94	81	Dubai	United Arab Emirates
94	115	Nanjing	China
94	124	Chengdu	China
97	88	Riga	Latvia
98	99	White Plains NY	United States
99	53	Havana	Cuba
99	86	Accra	Ghana

THE MOST EXPENSIVE AND RICHEST CITIES IN THE WORLD

UBS survey (2012): Most expensiv and richeste cities (Intro) | World's most expensive cities (table) | Richest cities by personal earnings (table) | Richest cities by purchasing power (table | The iPod index |

ECA International survey (2011): Introduction | Table: World | Table: Europe | Table: Asia |

Mercer survey (2013): Most expensive cities

EIU survey (2013): Most expensive cities

RICHEST CITIES BY GDP
Introduction | 150 richest cities in 2005 | 150 richest cities in 2020 | Europe's richest cities |

The lives of expatriates in the world’s most expensive cities A review of Mercer's Cost of Living Survey

The lives of expatriates in the
world’s most expensive cities
A review of Mercer's Cost of Living Survey