Thinking About Relocating Members of Your Staff? It may cost you…

July 30th, 2010

Are you considering opening a branch overseas?
The 2010 The Mercer survey for the use of companies thinking about opening businesses in faraway countries is out. The results may come as a surprise. The study covers 214 cities across five continents, comparing costs of 200 items including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

Luanda has hit the top spot as the most expensive city
Ever heard of Angola, capital city of Angola? Angola is on the West coast of Africa about one third up from the bottom. Well, Luanda is the most expensive city for corporate expats, according to the study which includes three African cities in the top 10 for the first time.

Luanda
The population of Luanda is about 5 million and the most widely used language is Portuguese. There is a small population of European origin, especially Portuguese. Luanda is largely influenced by Portuguese culture so Portuguese beer is widely consumed, although Heineken and Carlsberg and some local beers make an appearance. Some excellent Portuguese wines are also available.

Tokyo to Karachi
The next most expensive city is Tokyo and then Moscow and Geneva. At the other end of the scale Pakistan’s second city Karachi is the cheapest, according to Mercer.

Middle East
In the Middle East, Tel Aviv is the most expensive city in 19th spot followed by Abu Dhabi in 50th place and Dubai in 55th, while Tripoli is the cheapest at 186th, followed by Jeddah and Muscat in 181st and 176th place.

Back to Africa
Nathalie Constantin-Metral who is in charge of compiling the annual survey, says “African cities now figure prominently, reflecting the growing economic importance of the region to global companies across all business sectors.” After Luanda, the Chadian capital N’Djamena in third place followed by Libreville in Gabon in seventh place – the biggest number of Africa capitals in a top 10 usually dominated by Asian and European cities. “Cities in the developing world are not cheap for expatriates working there,” said Constantin-Metral. “Firms have to provide staff with the same standard of living as at home.”

Asia
Three Asian cities make the top 10 list: Tokyo in second, Osaka in 6th place, while Hong Kong is in 8th position. Singapore is not far behind in 11th, followed by Beijing in 16th, Nagoya in Japan in 19th, Shanghai in 25th and Taipei in 78th – while in India, Delhi is the most expensive on 85, followed by Mumbai on 89 and Bangalore on 190.

Australia
In Australia, Sydney is in 24th spot followed by Melbourne on 33 and Brisbane on 55, while Adelaide is the cheapest on 90th. New Zealand has Auckland on 149th, while Wellington is the cheapest in 163rd spot.

Europe
Moscow is the most expensive European city in 4th spot, ahead of Geneva in 5th, Zurich in 8th and Copenhagen in 10th, according to the rankings based on a survey conducted in March this year. London is joint 17th with Paris.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 8:51 am and is filed under Employment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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