No joy for expats as HK retains unwanted title

Regional finance rivals Hong Kong and Singapore have retained their unwanted crowns as world's most expensive cities for expatriates, an annual survey shows.

The Mercer ranking comes on the heels of news that Hong Kong is also the world's most "impossibly unaffordable" city in 2024 for housing.

Hong Kong, which also topped Mercer's cost of living survey in 2022 and 2023, was closely followed by Singapore, in second place. High rental costs saw the Asian rivals beat the notoriously expensive Swiss cities of Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern to the top of the table, the consultancy said in its report.

New York fell one spot to seventh and London took eighth, rising nine spots since last year's ranking.

Mercer said rising housing costs and "volatile inflation trends" were putting pressure on expat workers' compensation packages.

"Cost-of-living challenges have had a significant impact on multinational organizations and their employees," said Yvonne Traber, Mercer's global mobility leader.

"High living costs may cause assignees to adjust their lifestyle, cut back on discretionary spending or even struggle to meet their basic needs," Traber said.

"To offset these challenges, employers can offer compensation packages that include housing allowances or subsidies or provide other support services."

Mercer measured the comparative cost of more than 200 items and services - including housing, transport, food, clothing and household goods - to come up with its ranking of 226 cities.

Last week, Hong Kong was ranked as the most unaffordable property market in the world in the Demographia International Housing Affordability annual survey. Sydney came in second, with Vancouver a close third.

Hong Kong was the only Asian city in the top 10 spots, with Singapore, the only other Asian market in the survey, in 11th place.

The Demographia survey, conducted by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, calculates how easy or difficult it is to buy a home using a measure called the median multiple. It divides the median house price by the median household income.

The least affordable market was found to be Hong Kong, with a median multiple of 16.7, with Sydney at 13.3.

Peter Holle, president of the US-based think tank, said the deterioration of housing affordability has been the "principal driver of the present cost-of-living crisis affecting the middle and working classes."