Hong Kong retains crown as world’s most expensive city for expats, while Singapore jumps to second place: survey
- Cost of living survey by Mercer puts city at top of global rankings, just ahead of Singapore, which climbed rankings by six places from last year
- Mainland Chinese and Japanese cities drop in rankings, with both Beijing and Tokyo exiting the top 10
Hong Kong is the most expensive city for expats, while Singapore comes in second place, a survey by a global consulting firm has found.
Mercer released the results of its cost of living survey on Tuesday, which found Hong Kong had topped the list for a second year in a row, while Singapore climbed six places. Swiss cities Zurich, Geneva and Basel came third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
Tracey Ma, the firm’s regional mobility leader for Asia-Pacific, attributed Singapore’s rise mainly to its strong currency position, as well as high inflation caused by supply chain disruptions and rising fuel costs.
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“Across the region, we have experienced high inflation in a majority of the key markets,” Ma said.
Housing costs were a major factor in ECA’s rankings, with the report attributing New York’s skyrocketing rent to people returning after the pandemic, while Singapore’s accommodation supply was unable to keep up with demand. According to ECA, housing prices in Hong Kong dropped, which experts have blamed on a slowing population and rising interest rates for mortgages.
But Mercer said mainland Chinese and Japanese cities bucked the trends of its survey. Most notably, Beijing and Tokyo dropped out of the top 10 to come in at 13th and 19th, respectively.
The three cities that lost the most ground in the rankings – Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka were all Japanese, falling between 56 and 65 places from last year.
Cities on the mainland also dropped in the rankings. While Shanghai retained its spot at 12th, Shenzhen fell seven places to 20th, while Guangzhou went from 18th to 36th and Qingdao from 22nd to 55th. Mercer explained the mainland’s general performance was because of a shrinking housing market and declining demand for rental properties.
“Almost all the cities in mainland China and Japan have dropped their rankings,” Ma said. “The key reasons are relatively slower consumer demand, and their weaker currency position against the US dollar. Japan has also been experiencing low domestic consumption and that has affected its recovery from the pandemic.”
Globally, Denmark’s Copenhagen came in at 9th, while New York – at sixth place – topped the rankings for North America. Israel’s Tel Aviv, in eighth, was the most expensive city in the Middle East.
Mercer predicted that “aggressive national monetary policies and the tightening of global financial conditions” were likely to cause sluggish income growth and more unemployment in 2023.
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The firm said many employers across the world were reconsidering their priorities after months of remote work throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of assessing work-life balance and thinking about the cities in which they chose to live.
“Many employers are having to rethink how they manage a globally distributed workforce, especially for those that operate in tight labour markets,” the report said.
Swiss private bank Julius Baer released its “Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report 2023”, on Tuesday, ranking cities by how expensive it was to “live well” in them through analysis of a variety of goods and services.
Singapore topped the Julius Baer chart and the bank explained that was because of the higher-than-usual costs of fine dining, premium whisky, business class flights and car prices compared with regional averages.
Singapore’s early reopening of its borders in the wake of the pandemic also made it popular with new arrivals, which had caused house prices to soar, it said.
Shanghai was in second place, despite the mainland’s strict Covid-19 measures throughout most of 2022, because of its expensive business class flights and high-priced tasting menu dinners.
Julius Baer ranked Hong Kong third, noting the return of tourists had caused the price of hotel suites and fine dining to soar.
The bank added Hongkongers were also paying more for cars and legal services, compared with last year and the city’s property prices remained the highest in Asia.
