Where not to live: World's most expensive cities
If you're pinching your pennies, you might want to look elsewhere for hot property than these pricey locales.
Who knew that the price of a washing machine is a factor in determining the world’s most expensive cities?
Not to mention the cost of rice, a soft drink, a movie ticket and a quick lunch, at least according to BusinessWeek’s 2009 slide show of the 30 most expensive cities. On a global scale, I suppose it simply doesn't work to compare the price of a Big Mac anymore.
With the yen on the rise, four Japanese cities leaped into the top five from positions ranging from 13 to 29 in 2008. Meanwhile, the capital of Angola (Luanda, pictured above) retained its position from last year as most expensive. By the way, I would also suggest you avoid visiting any of these cities in the top five, unless you're ready to dish out nearly $20 to see a flick.
Believe it or not, from the United States only Manhattan and Honolulu made the list. So Americans can at least breathe a sigh of relief that things could be much, much worse. After all, many of us still take advantage of the fact we have washing machines in our homes.
Take a look at this list of the 15 most expensive cities in the world. Planning to visit or move to one of them any time soon? Do share!
- Luanda, Angola
- Tokyo
- Nagoya, Japan
- Yokohama, Japan
- Kobe, Japan
- Copenhagen
- Oslo
- Geneva
- Zurich
- Basel, Switzerland
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Libreville, Gabon
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Bern, Switzerland
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Stavanger, Norway
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Helsinki
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Paris
Thanks for the blog.We should expect to see many more abberations like Luanda, Angola as further Socialism grips the planet. Angola has chronic 25% unemployment, US$8800 GDP per capita, US$1890 income per capita (huge disparity between GDP and income - I wonder where that goes?) and wild spurts of inflation. All are historical symptoms of Socialism. I do not know the veracity of the reported $57.92 'Quick Lunch', but we should not be surprised.
(PS: I live in Marunouchi, Tokyo, and commute to school. Takes me about 20 minutes)
I've been in Luanda a couple times, and know a lot of people who work there, and I can assure that living costs in Luanda are very high, for example a regular house with 3 bedrooms can go for $10,000 to $20,000 a month, every thing there is imported, that's why it's so expensive to live there. But they have a lot of foreigners working there because they pay really good, and most companies will pay your living expenses because even if you get paid like $10,000 a month it's still not enough to live there. If you don't believe me just do some research.
About Teresa Mears
Teresa Mears is a veteran journalist who has been interested in houses since her father took her to tax auctions to carry the cash at age 10. A former editor of The Miami Herald's Home & Design section, she lives in South Florida where, in addition to writing about real estate, she publishes Miami on the Cheap to help her neighbors adjust to the loss of 60% of their property value.
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