[jameso]

From AFX newswire:
The 50 priciest cities in the world, according to the cost of items including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment:
1. Moscow 2. Seoul 3. Tokyo 4. Hong Kong 5. London ....... 43. White Plains, N.Y, 44. Shenzhen, China....

i don't see that when a starbucks, a tuberide and a packet of fags costs around $170 in London and $70 in Hong Kong. or a cab costs $15 here and around $120 in London. Or a catty of stewing steak just $14 here, I have no idea how much in London! But probably more than a UK pound.
Must be that crazy rent that pushes HK up the tables.

[Netfiend]

This shud help in package negotiations

[PDLM]

What the survey actually shows is that Hong Kong is the fourth most expensive city in the world for Americans to live in if they are trying to replicate as closely as possible their living style, food consumption, and other purchases that they would have if they were living in New York.

To my mind this is not a very useful measure since the essence of being an expat is (or should be, I believe) that you do different things, not that you try to replicate a little piece of your homeland on the other side of the world.

[texasaxel]

IMO, the main factors affecting HK's ranking are the high cost of luxury housing, international school fees and the price of a new luxury car. Many foreigners in HK can do without some or all of the above. However, if the survey assesses the cost of replicating overseas the lifestyle of an American manager in New York (as PDLM suggests), then I can see how HK can be considered as an expensive city.

[laurac]

I think it does have a lot to do with housing because I heard that the reason why Moscow was #1 is because so many expats are moving there, pushing up the rent costs and pushing the locals out to the suburbs.

[-jC-]

well that just means we should all move to shenzhen, raise the price there, lower te price here and move back down :P long term cheapness plan lol