News headlines


Gulf-News
 
Dubai, Jun 27: Confirming what many residents have long suspected, a worldwide survey has placed Dubai among the top 25 most expensive cities, jumping almost 50 places from last year.

According to the annual Mercer Human Resource Consulting Cost of Living Survey, the emirate broke into the top-most expensive cities, tying for the 25th spot with Helsinki in Finland.

However, the survey also indicated that Dubai is still cheaper than some less-developed cities including Beijing (14th), Istanbul (15th), and Shanghai (20th). Abu Dhabi was ranked 13th, up from 64 last year; while Beirut was 32.

The survey ranks 144 countries, measuring the comparative cost of more than 200 indicators including housing, food and transportation.

It should be noted though, that the survey reflects the cost of living for people living a "Western-style" lifestyle in the cities ranked.

According to Dubai-based investment advisor, Dr. Khalid Maniar, Dubai's ranking does not come as a surprise. "If the earning potential of the city mirrors the increase in the cost of living, then the new ranking would be fine," he told Gulf News. "However this does not seem to be the case."

Benefits

"There are some who are definitely benefiting from the current climate, but there are segments of society who are obviously facing hardships. The average person's earning potential does not appear to have increased accordingly and this concerns me."

The rise in Dubai's ranking can be attributed primarily to the booming real estate sector, which has

resulted in a knock-on effect for other sectors raising the cost of living, said Dr. Maniar, who also indicated that he expected Dubai's ranking to continue to rise.

"I think it will continue to rise perhaps not at same pace - but in the next couple of years we could see Dubai jump another 10 places up the ranking," said Dr. Maniar.

Others

But, if you think Dubai is expensive, try living in the former Communist capital and world's current most expensive city Moscow. The Russian capital jumped from fourth to first place, outranking Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong and London, which rounded out the top five.

Seoul is named as the most expensive city in Asia and London as the second most expensive city in Europe, after Moscow.

Meanwhile, New York (10th) remains the most expensive city in North America, ranking number ten in the world.

Dubai, however, did not make the top-50 in the Mercer survey on quality of living, which named Switzerland as the best place to live. Zurich and Geneva ranked as the top two cities.

Emirate improves position

March '06  City
1 MOSCOW
2 SEOUL 
3 TOKYO 
4 HONG KONG  
5 LONDON 
6 OSAKA 
7 GENEVA
8 COPENHAGEN
9 ZURICH 
10 OSLO 
10 NEW YORK CITY 
12 ST.PETERSBURG 
13 MILAN 
14 BEIJING 
15 ISTANBUL 
15 PARIS 
17 SINGAPORE 
18 DUBLIN 
19 SYDNEY 
20 SHANGHAI 
21 ROME 
21 KIEV 
21 VIENNA 
24 TEL AVIV
25 HELSINKI
25 DUBAI 
27 DOUALA 
28 TAIPEI 
29 LOS ANGELES 
30 ABU DHABI 
31 LAGOS 
32 BEIRUT 
32 HANOI 
34 SAO PAULO 
34 SAN FRANCISCO 
36 STOCKHOLM 
37 HO CHI MINH CITY 
38 CHICAGO 
39 MIAMI 
40 RIO DE JANEIRO 
41 LUSAKA1 
41 AMSTERDAM 
43 WHITE PLAINS 
44 SHENZHEN 
45 ABIDJAN 
45 DAKAR 
47 TORONTO 
48 JAKARTA 
48 BRATISLAVA 
50 PRAGUE  

  

Top Stories


Leave a Comment

Title: News headlines



You have 2000 characters left.

Disclaimer:

Please write your correct name and email address. Kindly do not post any personal, abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful or similar comments. Daijiworld.com will not be responsible for any defamatory message posted under this article.

Please note that sending false messages to insult, defame, intimidate, mislead or deceive people or to intentionally cause public disorder is punishable under law. It is obligatory on Daijiworld to provide the IP address and other details of senders of such comments, to the authority concerned upon request.

Hence, sending offensive comments using daijiworld will be purely at your own risk, and in no way will Daijiworld.com be held responsible.