Until now it was said that Hong Kong was the most expensive city in the world. But now that’s no more the most expensive city in the world. Lately’s it’s been reported that London has become the world’s most expensive city leaving Hong Kong behind.
Savills plc is a global real estate services provider. The company provides consulting services and advice (such as valuation, building consultancy, environmental consultancy, landlord and tenant, planning, strategic projects and research) in connection with commercial, residential and agricultural properties, property related financial services and investment management, which includes investment management for institutional or professional investors. It has over 600 offices and associates throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, employing over 27,000 staff. Savills has Live/Work Index that was launched in 2008. The index provides the info of the world’s top most expensive cities. To be more specific, the index measures the total costs per employee of renting living and working space on a US dollar basis in 12 world cities.
However, according to a survey by this global real estate services provider, since 2008, until now, Hong Kong was the top most expensive city in the world. But, now the scenario has changed. Now, London has become the top most expensive city in the world leaving Hong Kong at second place. At present, the top 12 most expensive cities in world are:
1. London
2. Hong Kong
3. New York
4. Paris
5. Tokyo
6. Singapore
7. Moscow
8. Sydney
9. Dubai
10. Shanghai
11. Rio de Janeiro
12. Mumbai
According to the report, soaring rents combined with the strong pound has driven up the average cost per employee of renting somewhere to live and leasing office space by 39 per cent to $120,000 or £73,000 a year – making it almost twice as pricey as Sydney, and four times more than Rio de Janeiro. That’s not all. Property prices in the UK capital have soared 18.4 per cent in the past year alone, encouraged by a general upturn in the economy, and that helped take London from fifth place in 2008 in the study’s table to top. At the other end of the scale, Rio de Janeiro and Mumbai are the cheapest cities on the list to locate employees.
Now, London is well ahead of other cities on the list, such as New York and Paris (third and four respectively), which along with Hong Kong are the only hubs where residential and office space rental costs top US$100,000, or £61,000 a year. In fact, Savills has mentioned that Hong Kong’s drop to second spot in the rankings, after five years at the top, was down to a modest fall in residential rents combined with a weakening currency.
Yolande Barnes, the company’s director of world research, said, “This year has seen much more modest real estate price growth in nearly all our world cities, and some have shown small falls. We expect this subdued trend to continue as investor interest and market activity shifts to second-tier cities. This lower level of price growth means that currency fluctuations have produced some of the biggest changes in our rankings, which are expressed in dollar terms. For multinationals looking at their local costs, it is this which is likely to exercise them more than property markets over the next year.”
If you don’t reside in London, but plan to visit shortly to London, then be careful as London is now the world’s most expensive city, not Hong Kong.
Source: Savills
Thanks To: The Daily Times
[ttjad keyword=”camera-general”]
