Mumbai Most Expensive Indian City for Expats: Survey

Mumbai is the costliest city to live in for expats in India, ahead of Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru, according to the 2018 survey published by global consulting firm Mercer.

The cost of living in Mumbai for expats is more than that in global cities like Melbourne and Frankfurt, the report said. The Maharashtra capital is ranked at No. 55, ahead of Melbourne (58), Frankfurt (68), Buenos Aires (76), Stockholm (89) and Atlanta (95). Delhi (103), Chennai (144) and Bengaluru (170) are comparatively cheaper while Kolkata, at the 182nd place, is the least expensive Indian city for expats.

“While cities such as Melbourne and Buenos Aires have fallen in their rankings, Mumbai’s jump is attributable to the continued surge in prices of food, alcohol and domestic supplies,” the survey said, according to PTI.

Four out of five of the world’s most expensive cities for expatriates are now in Asia, according to the report. Hong Kong has taken the top spot from Luanda as the world’s costliest city to live for expats. Luanda, the capital of Angola, has moved to the sixth place due in part to the downward trend in the city’s housing market, the report said. Tokyo and Zurich are at the second and third positions, respectively, while Singapore has moved one place up from last year to take the fourth spot.

Other cities appearing in the top 10 of Mercer’s costliest cities for expatriates are Seoul (5), Shanghai (7), N’Djamena (8), Beijing (9), and Bern (10).

Asian cities dominated the list of the Top 10 most expensive locations for working abroad.

“Stronger Chinese monetary regulation, a flourishing economy and a push to have the Chinese yuan as an international currency pushed Chinese cities up the ranking,” Yvonne Traber, Mercer’s global mobility product solutions leader, said in a statement. “However significant surges in other locations worldwide caused Japanese cities, Osaka and Nagoya in particular, to fall in this year’s ranking.”

The world’s least expensive cities for expatriates are Tashkent (209), Tunis (208), and Bishkek (207).

The survey uses New York City as the base city for all comparisons, while currency movements are measured against the US dollar. The survey this year included 209 cities across five continents. It measured the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment.