Hong Kong Outranks Major Asian Cities In Global Cost-Of-Living Survey

Hong Kong is the 13th most expensive city to live in according to the latest survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The survey, covered by the South China Morning Post, concluded that Hong Kong outranks several major cities in Asia like South Korean capital Seoul at rank 15 and Chinese mega-city Shanghai at rank 21, which was revealed in the survey as the most expensive city in mainland China.

Japanese city of Osaka came close to Hong Kong, ranking at number 14.

The bi-annual survey examines different factors that affect the cost of living of individuals – especially expatriates – in a particular city.

The main factor involved in the survey was the cost of 160 types of products and services in 140 cities. These prices were converted into US dollars and were inspected by the intelligence unit. The products and services surveyed range from alcohol to education.

Hong Kong became one level more expensive than last year’s survey, which ranked the city at number 14.

Two other Asian cities outrank Hong Kong on the list: Tokyo at number 6 and Singapore, beating all the world’s cities at number 1.

According to Hong Kong based news website The Standard,there are nine Asian cities on the top 20 list.

Many experts were not surprised by Hong Kong’s place on the list. Despite an increase in employee salary in the city, various commodities have also been observed to become more expensive over the past few months.

The rise of Singapore in the list was also expected due to the increasing cost of transport and fuel in the city. According to a related report by the Inquisitr, a Toyota Corolla Altis, which costs $35,000 dollars in Malaysia, can cost up to $100,000 dollars in Singapore.

Experts also note that Tokyo’s fall from the ranks resulted from the significant decrease in the value of yen.

Hong Kong is an Alpha + city, which means its role in the global economic system is more advanced and more important than most cities in the world. The only other Alpha + cities are Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Sydney and Dubai. Only two cities are above the Alpha + club: the Alpha ++ which consists of New York City and London.

Hong Kong has also been host to other major news in the past few weeks. Only last month, influential journalist Kevin Lau was assaulted by unknown attackers shortly after a major protest in Hong Kong denounced the lack of press freedom in the city.

[Image from Trey Ratcliff via Flickr]