Which cities are the most expensive ones to live in and to visit? Which are the cheapest? The answers might surprise you.
Which cities are the most expensive ones to live in and to visit? Which are the cheapest? The answers might surprise you.
View Housing Market Watch RSS feedWhich cities are the most expensive ones to live in and to visit? Which are the cheapest? The answers might surprise you.
Figures from UBS Wealth Management Research reveal that the most expensive cities to visit are still Oslo, Copenhagen and London. Dublin has shot up the list in the last two years, moving from #13 to #4.
Another notable change involves the notoriously high priced city of New York. The weakening of the dollar against the Euro and other currencies has made New York and other U.S. cities more affordable, particularly for Europeans. In fact, London is now 26 percent more expensive for Europeans to visit than New York.
| Rank | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Oslo |
| 2 | Copenhagen |
| 3 | London |
| 4 | Dublin |
| 5 | Zurich |
| 6 | Stockholm |
| 7 | Helsinki |
| 8 | Geneva |
| 9 | Paris |
| 10 | Vienna |
Source: UBS 2008 Prices and Earning
When rents are taken into account, the city rankings change slightly. London is the most expensive city to live in, followed by Oslo and Dublin. New York is the fifth-most expensive city in the world. Chicago and Los Angeles are at 18 and 21 respectively.
Residents of Copenhagen, Oslo and Zurich earn the highest wages. Inflation and the depreciation of the dollar have made wages in U.S. cities worth less. Unlike previous years, workers in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles no longer earn wages comparable to workers in European cities.
| Rank | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | London |
| 2 | Oslo |
| 3 | Dublin |
| 4 | Copenhagen |
| 5 | New York |
| 6 | Zurich |
| 7 | Geneva |
| 8 | Tokyo |
| 9 | Paris |
| 10 | Helsinki |
Source: UBS 2008 Prices and Earning
The cheapest cities in the world to visit are located in Asia and South America. It costs 72 percent less to visit Kuala Lumpur, the cheapest city in the world, than it does to visit Oslo, the most expensive city in the world.
The depreciation of certain currencies has made it much cheaper to visit cities like Buenos Aires and Mumbai. Other cities that are inexpensive to visit compared to high-priced European cities include Shanghai, Beijing and Lima.
| Rank | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Kuala Lumpur |
| 2 | Buenos Aires |
| 3 | Mumbai |
| 4 | Delhi |
| 5 | Jakarta |
| 6 | Lima |
| 7 | Beijing |
| 8 | Shanghai |
| 9 | Nairobi |
| 10 | Kiev |
Source: UBS 2008 Prices and Earning
When rents are taken into account, Kuala Lumpur and Buenos Aires remain at the top of the list. Lima is the third cheapest city in the world to live in, followed by Delhi and Shanghai.
Many of the cities on this list are cheap to live in because workers earn low wages. For example, residents of Jakarta, who take home the lowest wages of any city included in the survey, gross 95 percent less than the highest paid European workers.
| Rank | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Kuala Lumpur |
| 2 | Buenos Aires |
| 3 | Lima |
| 4 | Delhi |
| 5 | Shanghai |
| 6 | Manila |
| 7 | Beijing |
| 8 | Johannesburg |
| 9 | Jakarta |
| 10 | Nairobi |
Source: UBS 2008 Prices and Earning
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