| Kippreport.com

Share

Dubai at 55, Abu Dhabi at 50: Where’s the most expensive city to live?

June 29, 2010 3:30 by Samuel Potter

Wondering where the least expensive city to live in is? That would be Karachi, according to the latest Mercer study.

The HR consulting firm has released its latest Cost of Living study, reports Zawya.com, and the good news according to them is that, thanks to falling accommodation costs, Abu Dhabi and Dubai remain “relatively affordable cities in which to live.”

If by “relatively affordable,” you mean “relatively expensive,” of course. Dubai ranked as the 55th most expensive city for expatriates, tying with Los Angeles. But Abu Dhabi expats are worse off – the UAE’s capital city is the 50th most expensive city in which to live. It ties with Frankfurt, but is the most expensive city in the Middle East.

Other cities across the GCC were ranked as follows: Manama, Bahrain (139), Riyadh, KSA (144), Doha, Qatar (146), Kuwait City, Kuwait (152), Muscat, Oman (176), and Jeddah, KSA (181).

The survey covers 214 cities across five continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. All cities are compared against New York as the base city for the index. Currency movements are measured against the US dollar. The cost of housing – often the biggest expense for expats – plays an important part in determining where cities are ranked.

For the first time, the ranking of the world’s top 10 most expensive cities includes three African urban centres: Luanda (1) in Angola, Ndjamena (3) in Chad and Libreville (7) in Gabon. The top ten also includes three Asian cities; Tokyo (2), Osaka (6) and Hong Kong (jointly ranked 8). Moscow (4), Geneva (5) and Zurich (joint are the most expensive European cities, followed by Copenhagen (10).

Tags: Abu Dhabi, cheapest place to live, cost of living, cost of living survey, Dubai, expat, Karachi, Mercer, most expensive place to live, survey