Hong Kong ranks as fourth costliest city for expats

A stronger HKD and higher price tags drove up its cost of living.

Hong Kong moved up as the fourth most expensive location in the world for expatriates and the second most expensive in the Asia-Pacific region, ECA International revealed.

Findings showed that prices in Hong Kong rose at a faster rate in the past 12 months than in Tokyo, Shanghai, and Seoul. Combined with the continued strength of the HKD relative to other regional currencies, Hong Kong is now the second most expensive city in the APAC region.

Also read: Hong Kong and Paris squeeze into Singapore's throne as costliest city globally

Regional peer Singapore also overtook Beijing, Busan, and Yokohama as it climbed up eight spots to take the title as the 12th most expensive location in the world, and fifth in Asia.

Chinese locations remained relatively the same, with none moving more than four places. “The yuan has been very stable ... inflation in tier one cities such as Beijing and Shanghai has been much more moderate when compared to other Asian cities which are situated towards the upper end of our rankings,” regional director – Asia at ECA International, Lee Quane, said.

Outside of Asia, an uncertain year for the euro saw prominent European locations such as Berlin, Rome, and Madrid all drop over twenty places in the rankings.

In the US, Manhattan was the highest placed city, moving up nine places to 21st whilst Philadelphia and Boston each rose by over 40 places from last year.

Globally, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan rose as the most expensive city in the world for expatriates, having leapt up 110 places from the previous year. Rounding out the top ten most expensive cities in Pacific-Asia were Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Yokohama, Beijing and Nagoya.