Fall in living costs makes UAE attractive: Mercer study

The trend of falling accommodation costs are driving cities down the global cost of living ranking, making politically stable markets such as the UAE, potentially more attractive places for expatriates to live, Mercer said today in a statement.

Abu Dubai is ranked the most expensive city in UAE for expats, according to Mercer's 2011 Cost of Living Survey.

Dubai, on the other hand is ranked 81 globally, dropping 26 places compared to last year. Other cities across the GCC were ranked as follows: Riyadh, KSA (135) , Manama, Bahrain (157), Kuwait City, Kuwait (159), Doha Qatar (164), Muscat, Oman (184) and Jeddah KSA (185).

Callum Burns-Green who heads Mercer’s Dubai office said in the statement, “Dubai in particular has witnessed a reduction in accommodation costs since 2009 as the strong supply of property coming on to the rental market has reduced the shortage that existed in the several years prior to 2008. The Government has also announced plans to control inflation in other key areas such as the cost of food.”

Luanda in Angola is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates for the second year running, largely due to the high costs associated with security and safe accommodation, the study cited while Tokyo remains in second position and Ndjamena in Chad in third place.

Moscow follows in fourth position with Geneva in fifth and Osaka in sixth. Zurich jumps one position to rank seventh, while Hong Kong drops down to ninth.

The survey covers 214 cities across five continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

The cost of housing – often the biggest expense for expats – plays an important part in determining where cities are ranked, the statement said.