KUALA LUMPUR: Tokyo overtakes New York as the world's second most expensive city for expatriates to live and work, while Hong Kong retains its number one spot, ECA International said.
The management and survey firm said the US locations had fallen in the global rankings after a tough spell for the US dollar, with San Francisco falling out of the global top 10 to be in 15th place, and New York dropping two places to be in fourth place.
ECA InternationalAsia regional director Lee Quane said the dollar had struggled against other major currencies in recent months, in part due to the large stimulus packages introduced by presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
"This has affected every US city in our rankings, including New York, which has been overtaken by Tokyo and Geneva this year.
"Moreover, large US cities like San Francisco, Chicago and New York saw their city centre rental prices drop as people began to move away from the cities due to the rise in remote working during the pandemic," he added.
Despite falling rental prices and the Hong Kong dollar weakening against currencies such as the euro and yuan, the city had retained its spot as the most expensive location for expatriates, Quane said in a statement today.
"While New York was a strong competitor to Hong Kong – having placed second in last year's global rankings – the struggling US dollar allowed Hong Kong to retain its top spot among the global rankings, while bumping New York to fourth place," he added.
Singapore is now the eighth most expensive location for expatriates in Asia, and 13th place globally.
Quane said with prices in Singapore remaining stable over recent months, any changes in the costs for expatriates living and working in the country would be largely dependent on currency changes.
"Consequently, as the Singapore dollar has been weaker than the yuan in the last 12 months, this has caused Singapore to fall behind Shenzhen and Guangzhou in our global rankings," he said.