High rents add to cost of living in UK cities

Friday 29th July 2011

The high cost of renting has helped propel UK cities up the ranks of the world’s most expensive cities for expatriates to live in.

Aberdeen, Glasgow, Birmingham and Belfast have all jumped up the ranks in a new worldwide cost of living survey, published this morning by Mercer.

London bucked the trend, however. Although it ranks as 18th most expensive in the world out of 214, it slipped down a place from last year.

Catherin Gervais, of Mercer, said: “Most UK cities have moved up the list following the loss in value of the US dollar against the British pound, the rise in cost of rental accommodation and increased prices on goods and services following the VAT rise.

“Despite this, London has been overtaken and pushed down the list, reflecting even higher price increases in the cities ranking above it.”

Luanda in Angola is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates for the second year running. Tokyo remains in second position and N’Djamena in Chad in third place. Moscow follows in fourth position with Geneva in fifth and Osaka in sixth. Zurich jumps one position to rank seventh, while Hong Kong drops down to ninth.

London (18) is the UK’s most expensive city, followed by Aberdeen (144), Glasgow (148) and Birmingham (150). Belfast (178) is ranked as the UK’s least expensive city.
 
The survey is designed to help multi-national companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.