London-the most expensive city to live

A recent UK study reveals that London is the most expensive city to live in overtaking Hong Kong .The study conducted by real estate firm Savills survey revealed that the most expensive city to live and work in is London

• The study compares the total annual cost of renting both residential and office accommodation per person in some of the world’s leading cities

Flash points

• London has overtook Hong Kong, New York and have occupied the topmost place
• It is also found that London is twice expensive as Sydney and four times that of Rio-de-Janeiro
• The cost of living of London has grown up by 18% in the past 5 years
• The accommodation for the average Londoner — calculated as a total of housing and office rental costs — comes to 80,700 pounds a year, compared to 79,600 pounds in New York and 73,800 pounds in Hong Kong
• The productivity of cities and their value to global businesses clearly has a pronounced effect on demand and hence rental costs
• The rising rents and the strong pound had pushed up the typical cost per individual employee of renting somewhere to live and leasing office space to $120,000 (£73,800) a year
• London’s overall real estate costs grew in US dollar terms by an annualised rate of 6% in the first six months of the year, making the it “the world’s most expensive city for companies to locate employees
• On the contrast, falling residential rents and a weakening currency contributed to Hong Kong, which had previously topped the table for five years running, dropping to second place

The only Indian city in the list is Mumbai which occupies 17^th position in the list of 20 cities ahead of Rio-de-Janeiro,Berlin and Johannesberg