Thread: Top ten most expensive cities in the world to live

Due to a combination of a strong Australian dollar and rising inflation, Australian cities now rank among the world's 20 most expensive places to live.

It now costs more to live in the five mainland state capital cities than in London, New York, Rome, Los Angeles, Berlin or Hong Kong, the latest survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit has found.

Sydney leads the Australian list, globally ranked at number seven, slightly ahead of Melbourne at number eight. Perth is the 13th most expensive place to live in the world, Brisbane is the 14th and Adelaide is the 18th.

The report's editor, Jon Copestake, said the cost of a loaf of bread in Sydney had almost doubled in the past 10 years, while petrol had risen threefold.

Mr Copestake placed much of the blame for the high cost of living on the strong Australian dollar. "Exchange rates have been the greatest influence for the Australian cost of living, with the Australian dollar seeing its value to the US dollar double in a decade," he said.

Local price inflation, especially last year, has also played a part, he said.

When the survey was last conducted in June, four of Australia's cities were in the top 20.

Mr Copestake said a city's desirability as a destination could also affect its cost-of-living ranking.

Cost-of-living increases in Switzerland, where the Swiss franc has emerged as a haven currency amid the eurozone crisis, led to currency-related cost pressures there.

For the first time in 20 years, Zurich outranked Tokyo as the world's most expensive city.

Switzerland, Japan and Australia each had two cities in the most expensive top 10.

The survey compares the price of more than 400 items, including food, clothing, rent, transport, utility bills and recreational costs.
At the other end of the scale, the report found the subcontinent the place to go for lower costs of living, with cities in India and Pakistan rounding out three of the four least expensive cities in the world.

10 most expensive cities in the world

1. Zurich - Switzerland
2. Tokyo - Japan
3. Geneva - Switzerland
4. Osaka Kobe - Japan
5. Oslo - Norway
6. Paris - France
7. Sydney - Australia
8. Melbourne - Australia
9. Singapore - Singapore
10. Frankfurt - Germany

10 least expensive cities in the world

1. Karachi - Pakistan
2. Mumbai - India
3. Tehran - Iran
4. New Delhi - India
5. Jeddah - Saudi Arabia
6. Panama City - Panama
7. Kathmandu - Nepal
8. Algiers - Algeria
9. Dhaka - Bangladesh
10. Muscat - Amman

You just need to "shop around" apparently

However much shopping around you do, can't escape the fact that the average house price in Australia is 7 times the average salary (comapred to 3 times the average salary across the developed world). Still, happy to report that bananas are a reasonable $2.50 /kg at the moment.

So its 'officially' very expensive to live in Australia...How come I dont feel the pinch like I did in the UK then???? I just dont get it....

They can't take into account individual circumstances, if you lived in the UK and went from a job earning £2 an hour to one paying £5 an hour obviously your standard of living would increase dramatically, you wouldn't have to move country to experience it. Many people in both countries are feeling the pinch, equally many aren't. There seems to be little doubt that living here has become much more expensive in recent times.

Oh I agree Chris but we do the same jobs here as we did in the UK. Is it not just a case of increasing cost of living everywhere though?

Absolutely, costs are increasing all over. I can only really compare to what I saw when I was in the UK, groceries were cheaper to much cheaper and many other things apart from fuel were also cheaper.

Brisbane doesn't fair to well either - http://www.couriermail.com.au/busine...-1226271214176