Surveys: “UAE more ‘affordable’ yet most expensive for GCC expats”
Recently, we got news of a 2012 survery which covers cost of living across the most popular expat cities throughout the world. While the obvious cities remained about the same, some Middle East markets actually showed a drop in cost of living according to the 2012 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey:
“The survey shows that Abu Dhabi has fallen nine places over the last year, to rank at 76, and Dubai in turn has fallen 13 spots to position 94.
Tokyo, meanwhile has taken over as the most expensive city in the world for expatriates, displacing Luanda, Angola, which dropped to second place. Further, the top ten most expensive cities continue to be predominantly led by those located in Europe and Asia.
In addition to the lower accommodation costs across the UAE, the fall in Abu Dhabi’s and Dubai’s ranking has come about as a result of several other factors that range from slower increase in the prices of goods and services in the country relative to the base city, New York, to the stabilisation of the real estate market in the Middle East.
The UAE has lost the lead as the most expensive cities in the Middle East, with Beirut moving forward to position 67.
The UAE is nonetheless still the most expensive place to live in the GCC, ahead of Riyadh, KSA (123), Manama, Bahrain (156), Kuwait City, Kuwait (134), Doha, Qatar (169), Muscat, Oman (179) and Jeddah, KSA (186).
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“The survey calculates cost of living for 214 cities around the world, comparing costs for over 200 factors in each location including: housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.
The base city for comparison has been set as New York City, with currencies measured against the US dollar.”
Read more on the Mercer survey from Emirates 24/7 here…
Of course, there is a case to be made that this decrease in prices is not the whole story, so be wary of wide reaching claims of affordable and available housing in Dubai and elsewhere in the region. But, to see some of the newest jobs for expat legal professionals in the Middle East, please check out the job search page at Law Alliance.
