Hong Kong is Asia's third costliest expat city

The recession has yet to hit on the cost of living in the city.

Hong Kong is now the third most expensive location in Asia, and the sixth most expensive place in the world for expatriate workers to live, a cost of living survey published by data company ECA International found.

Tokyo jumped six places to become the second-most expensive location in Asia, whilst Ashgabat in Turkmenistan continues to be both Asia and the world’s costliest place for expats.

“Hong Kong’s place in the rankings has remained stable this year with the city continuing to be the sixth most expensive location in the world for expatriates,” said Lee Quane, Regional Director-Asia for ECA International.

“Despite the ongoing socio-political upheavals and the fact that the economy is in recession, we have yet to see a real impact in the cost of living in the city,” he added.

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The strong performance of the Japanese yen drove many Japanese cities up in rankings. Prices of commodities in the country is also expected to increase further as a result of the recent consumption tax and the upcoming Summer Olympics, which is likely to have an inflationary effect.

Meanwhile, Ashgabat remains a costly city for expats after climbing 147 places in 2017 as a result of its high inflation and a black market currency rate that is far weaker than the official exchange rate. This makes purchases particularly expensive for expats in their home currency unless they can access the illegal black market exchange rate, reported ECA International.

In mainland China, only Macau bucked the trend to rise to 18th place in 2019 from ranking 25th in 2018. Chinese cities declined as a result of the weakness of yuan against other major currencies in the past 12 months.

“Whilst rising pork prices have pushed up costs for many Chinese households in the past 12 months, the impact on cost of living for expatriates in Chinese cities versus their peers elsewhere has been limited as pork tends to be less popular among most expatriates and because of the weakness of the currency,” said Quane.

Thai cities continue to be amongst the biggest risers in the rankings, with Bangkok jumping 43 places and breaking the top 50 most expensive locations for the first time, ending at the 47th spot. Bangkok and Chiang Mai moved up 75 places and 56 places, respectively, in the past two years alone, noted Quane.

Singapore also rose 5 places to become the 13th most expensive location in the world on the back of a strong performance of the Singaporean dollar. Singapore is now more expensive for expatriates than Seoul and Shanghai, according to Quane.

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Globally, Ashgabat and Tokyo both dominated the first and second spot in the cost of living rankings, whilst the Swiss cities of Zurich, Geneva, and Basil comprised the remaining top 5 spots. Apart from Swiss cities which continue to dominate the top 10 worldwide, most European cities fell in the rankings.

Notably, London dropped to 140th place, the lowest position it has occupied since ECA International began producing cost of living rankings in 2005.