I The World’s 5 Most Expensive Cities To Live In

Real Estate The World’s 5 Most Expensive Cities To Live In

These five cities have seen prices and inflation soar under pandemic pressures.

The cost of living in the world’s major cities has only grown since the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe, according to the “Worldwide Cost of Living 2021” report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The report revealed that inflation rates rose 3.5% across 173 cities in 2021, compared to an increase of 1.9% in 2020, the sharpest year-on-year increase over the past five years. Yet the cost of living could stabilize in 2022, the EIU forecasts, if lockdown restrictions and supply-chain disruptions ease worldwide. Here are five of the most expensive cities in the world to live in.

1. Tel Aviv, Israel

Tel Aviv was crowned the world’s most expensive city to live in for the first time in 2021, propelled from fifth place in 2020 by an increased cost of goods and services such as transport and groceries, combined with a pricy property market and strong currency last year, according to EIU findings. Israel’s currency, the shekel, held strong against the dollar during the pandemic, gaining 10.9% against the dollar from January 2020 to November 2021—the highest gain among emerging currencies, according to Refinitiv. Amid soaring inflation rates last year, consumer prices in Israel are projected to grow by 1.8% in 2022, according to the IMF.

Known as the “White City,” Tel Aviv has become a hub for banking, real estate, technology, and more significant sectors of Israel’s economy since its founding in 1909. While the city draws in a million daily commuters, its over 400,000 residents live in the country’s most expensive housing market, where housing prices rose by 9% in 2021, according to the Times of Israel.

2. Paris, France Living costs in Paris may have contributed to its population declining over the past decade, with an estimated 100,000 leaving the city between 2012 and 2021, according to Statista. While real estate prices rose 26% over the last five years across France, properties in the heart of the French capital averaged $12,266 per square meter, compared to the Ile de France average of $7,823 per square meter in the third quarter of 2021, according to INSEE. Combined with housing expenses, Parisians also faced growing inflation for goods and services in 2021. France’s consumer price index (CPI) rose by 2.8% year-on-year as of December 2021, with a particular hike in fresh food and petrol prices, according to INSEE.

2. Singapore

In Singapore, costs for consumer goods and services such as transport, housing, and food increased amid higher inflation in 2021. The city-state’s CPI grew 3.8% year-over-year in November 2021, after declining by 0.2% in 2020, according to Singapore’s Departments of Statistics. The government has implemented several schemes to combat rising costs, from disbursing rental relief to grocery vouchers since the pandemic began in 2020. However, the city remains one of the world’s most expensive to live in among 173 cities studied by the EIU, having had the first and fourth highest consumer goods prices in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

4. Zurich, Switzerland Switzerland’s largest city is also its most expensive. It is the country’s economic and financial hub, with 80% of the country’s largest 100 companies located in the city. Zurich has the lowest vacancy rate in the nation, where residential property demand remained high during the pandemic, according to a Credit Suisse study.

The cost of goods and services increased in Switzerland last year, and recovery is expected to be delayed amid pandemicrelated restrictions and supply shortages going into 2022, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.

5. Hong Kong, China SAR

Hong Kong residents experienced increasing consumer prices in 2021, which the local government projects could continue this year amid rising import prices and pandemic recovery. Hong Kong’s CPI grew by 1.5% year-over-year in the first 11 months of 2021, according to Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department. Electricity, gas, and water increased by 31% year-overyear in November 2021. Hong Kong was the most expensive city for petrol in 2021, at an average of $2.5 per liter, compared to $2 per liter in Tel Aviv, according to the EIU.