Survey: Tel Aviv a pricier place to live

"White City" ranked 24th most expensive city in worldwide survey.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
The cost of living in Tel Aviv is going up, according to a recent survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, which ranked 144 cities around the world by the relative cost of such items as housing, transportation, and food. Tel Aviv showed up at No. 24 - up 15 places from No. 39 last year. Last year, the Economist compiled a list of the 27 most expensive cities in the world, in which Tel Aviv - the only Israeli city surveyed - came in 16th place. Tel Aviv ranked higher than Prague, Johannesburg, Bangkok, and Manila, but lower than New York, Hong Kong, Geneva, London, and Paris. The city with the highest cost of living this year, according to the Mercer Human Resource Consulting survey, is Moscow, followed by Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and London. According to a survey released on Monday, the Russian capital has a recent property boom to thank for its new status, while the weakening of the yen has knocked the Japanese capital down to No. 3 from No. 1 last year. The least-expensive city was Paraguay's Asuncion. Other cities on the less-costly end included Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which still showed a significant improvement by jumping to 34 and 40 from 119 and 124, respectively. "What's so interesting now is that we do see, year to year, more fluctuation in these rankings than we used to," said Rebecca Powers, a senior consultant at Mercer. "The investment and flow of capital and businesses into developing countries has made them a bit more expensive." The purpose of the survey was to help multinational employers decide on reasonable compensation for emigrant workers.