Cost of city ranking: Top 50 cities

[wj4]

http://www.mercer.com/press-releases/cost-of-living-rankings

Pretty interesting. I didn't think Brazil, Sydney, and Singapore would be among the top cities.

 

[Dashaansafin]

List is BS. Shanghai and Beijing more costly than any city in the United States? Ok.

 

[FLMountainMan]

Why isn't Tallahassee on that list? Must be an oversight.

 

[azif]

Sydney is pretty expensive. We still have a real estate bubble. I think though the reason for the high ranking is the current excchange rate (parity with USD).

 

[Stazy]

This list is garbage.

 

[Young88]

I just read different article about most expensive cities and Zurich was presented as the most expensive in world.

 

[xpress]

Total waste of 5 minutes.
Not even close to reality.

 

[yjeezle]

comparative costs for expats... i'm sure the cost of living in beijing, niger, or etc. is cheap if you're looking for a mud hut, but you know that expats are looking for more "luxurious" accommodations.

seems "more or less" right.

 

[curzon]



comparative costs for expats... i'm sure the cost of living in beijing, niger, or etc. is cheap if you're looking for a mud hut, but you know that expats are looking for more "luxurious" accommodations.
seems "more or less" right.

Alas, reading comprehension. You, sir, are correct. Many expats' compensation include non-cash items such as housing and perks such as club membership. The cost to achieve a NYC-comparable lifestyle in Shanghai or Tokyo is more (often much more) than the good 'ol USA. If I have a 3000sq ft home in Seattle I'm not going into a 800sq ft apartment in Hong Kong's mid levels, yeah? I lived in a SE Asian capital years ago, and due to the lack of high-quality, first-world-comparable housing rents inflated rapidly as more UN and NGO personnel moved in - supply and demand. I recall for many years in the early 90s the world's most expensive city was Brazzaville, Congo (formerly Zaire). I can assure you many Congoese were able to get by on a few dollars a day whilst the expat mining company reps were paying rents of over $10k per month. What do you think Petrus and le Pin costs in Brazzaville?

 

[wj4]



comparative costs for expats... i'm sure the cost of living in beijing, niger, or etc. is cheap if you're looking for a mud hut, but you know that expats are looking for more "luxurious" accommodations.
seems "more or less" right.

I think so as well. I don't have any experience with most of these cities. The only one I know is my homeland, Thailand. It is a "cheap" place if you want to live like locals. But if you want to drive a luxury car, live in a newly built high-rise condo, wear luxury clothes, you're going to be spending a lot of money.

I acknowledge that all studies are biased, no matter how thorough they are. Nonetheless, I thought it was an interesting read.

 

[DuncanCasey]

This is sick - how those people from Luanda survive then?

 

[impolyt_one]



Alas, reading comprehension. You, sir, are correct. Many expats' compensation include non-cash items such as housing and perks such as club membership. The cost to achieve a NYC-comparable lifestyle in Shanghai or Tokyo is more (often much more) than the good 'ol USA. If I have a 3000sq ft home in Seattle I'm not going into a 800sq ft apartment in Hong Kong's mid levels, yeah? I lived in a SE Asian capital years ago, and due to the lack of high-quality, first-world-comparable housing rents inflated rapidly as more UN and NGO personnel moved in - supply and demand. I recall for many years in the early 90s the world's most expensive city was Brazzaville, Congo (formerly Zaire). I can assure you many Congoese were able to get by on a few dollars a day whilst the expat mining company reps were paying rents of over $10k per month. What do you think Petrus and le Pin costs in Brazzaville?

Was actually surprised at how affordable wine was in Ho Chi Minh City.

Where is the list of the "over 200 things" they find the costs of in this survey? I realize how this survey works but just curious to see some of the less important things they're comparing.
Today I rode from Chelsea to Laguardia and the cab was $32 plus a $5 tip. When I got into Tokyo, I rode from Haneda airport up to Shibuya to get my dog from the kennel, then back down to Azabujuban; meter was almost $200USD. Both cab rides were reasonably around the same distance.

 

[curzon]



This is sick - how those people from Luanda survive then?

They're not living a NYC lifestyle.


Sadly for the curious Mercer does not publish the survey's 200-odd items. An excerpt from The Telegraph provides a few of the items and their cost in Luanda.

That means that expatriates face paying up to £12 for a fast food meal, £2.46 for a litre of milk, £7.99 for a trip to the cinema and £4.99 for 100g of spaghetti. The most basic of hotels, those living there say, can cost around £250 a night and a 20-minute taxi journey can come in at £30.

Conversely, the plenitude of oil means they pay just £0.37 for a litre of unleaded petrol. Meanwhile, more than 60 per cent of the Angolan population lives on less than £1.25 a day.

Here's a list of some items and the cost in a few cities.

@ impolyt_one - Tokyo has long had some of world's most expensive taxi fares; Narita to Tokyo center was approx. $120 in 1989. Fuel is costly, taxes are high, and I recall Japanese face punitively expensive vehicle inspections (shaken) every few years - replace their cars every 3 years or so to avoid the cost. Fares are also set by the gov't rather than the market. Since you converted the fare from yen to dollars we have to acknowledge the effect of exchange rate volatility. If I was paid in yen and living in SE Asia I'd be overjoyed right now. If my compensation was in euros or dollars and I worked in Tokyo, it would be a much sadder story. Fortunate too are those expats paid in Singapore and Aussie dollars and Swiss francs.

 

[impolyt_one]

The costs are here and there though - a NYC cab medallion costs about a million bucks (though it's not a depreciating asset, so that's good at least) - and shaken inspection in Japan is mostly a traditional nag from the days of yore, less applicable to modern times - shaken costs can be amortized easily enough as well, a few thousand dollars. The fuel is about $9/gal in Tokyo and $4/gal in NYC right now, but apart from that, mostly level playing field, give and take. Tokyo cabs are just really expensive, you're right. Just a different cultural perspective on personal transport.


What is a 'NYC lifestyle' though?

In the real world, most of the fat cats getting the full meal-deal expat packages in cities where life is decent and not a hardship tour - those guys have been there forever and they're not really handing out the full rides much anymore unless you work in a state department.
If this kind of discussion ever comes up on the internet, it's almost always new-age ESL teachers ready to chip in with their experiences, rather than the expat businessmen (who are taken care of, whenever) - and the thing that cracks me up is that almost inevitably, the focus of the discussion skips over the cost of rent, cars, even beer - it's always about the price of cheese. lol

 

[curzon]

Price of cheese? Hell, how about availability of cheese. I joke of course... except for Stilton... that's no joking matter.

Supermarkets throughout the Gulf and SE Asia are incredibly well-stocked w/ meats, fish, dairy and produce from throughout the world. The Gulf is quite affordable for imports; SE Asia less so, but still just about anything is available in the major cities. NE Asia is pricey and things can be tough to find.

The NYC lifestyle is what it costs that average, professional American family to house, feed, entertain, etc. itself in NYC. On these cost-of-living reports NYC is the baseline of 100. The Economist also conducts these surveys and NYC is its baseline too. Why is NYC and not London or Shanghai or elsewhere the baseline? Don't know for sure.

You're right about the demise of the expat package... for westerners, especially Anglophone ones. Companies are keen to localize management to cut costs, and as the developing world has become more educated and professional skills improved the pool of local talent to perform those jobs is there now. I've found the Japanese, Koreans, and non-UK EU firms don't localize management to the extent of US and UK companies do - not just country and regional managers are from the home office. Language and culture have something to do with that, of course. How many Singaporean managers are fluent in Swedish? Can that Singaporean advance w/o Swedish? To better attract and retain talent from around the world some companies have evolved their corporate culture, replacing the vernacular of HQ with English as the corporate working language. Will we see a Singaporean CEO of Swiss/Swedish ABB?