Singapore named world's second most expensive city for expats

By Hoang Vu June 21, 2024 | 10:00 pm PT

A water feature is seen in an empty Merlion Park along Marina Bay in Singapore, March 26, 2020. Photo by Reuters

Singapore has become the second most expensive city in the world for foreigners after Hong Kong in this year's Cost of Living Survey, released by American consulting firm Mercer.

They were followed by four cities in Switzerland: Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern.

The rest of the top 10 were filled out with New York, London, Nassau (Bahamas) and Los Angeles, according to the survey that compared the costs of more than 200 items in each of the 226 cities studied, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

According to Mercer, rising housing costs, inflation and increased costs for transportation, goods and services are among the reasons why the cost of living in the top-ranked cities is particularly high.

According to the survey, the cost of living in Ho Chi Minh City is cheaper than Hanoi when the southern metropolis ranked 178th while the capital at 172nd.

The 10 cheapest cities in the world are Abuja and Lagos in Nigeria; Islamabad and Karachi in Pakistan; Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan; Blantyrein in Malawi; Dushanbe in Tajikistan; Durban in South Africa; Windhoek in Namibia, and Havana in Cuba.