Paris Tops List Of World's Most Expensive Cities To Live For The First Time

Paris has climbed to the top of the world's priciest cities to live in - beating Geneva and Copenhagen, and tying with Hong Kong and Singapore.

The new Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report named Paris as the joint most expensive city, up one from its 2018 ranking as the second most expensive in the world.

The French capital was the only eurozone city in the top 10, rising from second most expensive in the world last year and from seventh position two years ago.

Paris is "extremely expensive to live in", said the report, with an average two-piece business suit for men quoted at around €1,700 and a typical women's haircut was costed at €150, it found.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, which carried out the research, said it was the first time in the more than three decades of the survey that three cities were equally ranked top, after Singapore led the chart outright a year earlier.

After Paris featured highly in previous rankings from the EIU, the report's author told The Local: "Paris has always been expensive. It's partly driven by high real estate prices that feed through to retail prices.

"It's just structurally expensive and the high wages also makes a difference."

“Parisians shouldn't see it as bad news. It's partly due to the high salaries there. It just means other places abroad are cheaper when they go and visit.

"They will have a much higher purchasing power. It's the same in places like Oslo where prices are also driven up by the very high salaries."

But there was some good news for Paris residents - transport, alcohol and tobacco all offered good value for money compared to other European cities.

The top ten list was dominated by Asian and European cities, with Osaka and Seoul in joint fifth and joint seventh places respectively, and Zurich (4th), Geneva (joint 5th) and Copenhagen (joint 7th) also in the elite club. North America was represented by the US cities of New York, seventh, and Los Angeles, tied 10th with Israel's Tel Aviv.

Currency appreciation, inflation and devaluation as well as political upheaval played a part in this year's rankings, said EIU, which surveyed 133 cities worldwide.

It compared 400 individual prices across 160 products and services, including food and drink, clothing, home rental, transport, schooling and recreation.

The survey is aimed at helping companies calculate compensation packages and allowances for expatriate staff and business travellers.

Caracas dethroned Damascus as the world's cheapest city amid a power struggle in Venezuela that plunged the country into a deepening crisis.

"As Damascus and Caracas show, a growing number of locations are becoming cheaper because of the impact of political or economic disruption," EIU said.

Asia's economic divide was underscored, with cities including Bangalore (129th), Karachi (127th), Chennai (125th) and New Delhi (123rd) ranking near  the bottom.

"Put simply, cheaper cities also tend to be less liveable," EIU said.

World's most expensive cities 2019 

1. = Paris

2. = Singapore

3. = Hong Kong

4. Zurich

5. = Geneva

6. = Osaka

7. = Seoul

8. = Copenhagen

9. = New York

10. = Tel Aviv

11. = Los Angeles

World's cheapest cities 2019 

1. Caracas

2. Damascus

3. Almaty

4. Tashkent

5. Bangalore

6. = Karachi

7. = Lagos

8. Buenos Aires

9. Chennai

10. New Delhi