Despite Covid-19, Tel Aviv remains among ten most expensive cities in the world for expats

The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and political upheavals weren’t able to push Hong Kong off the top of list of the most expensive cities to relocate to, according to the newest figures published by ECA International, a British strategic consulting and research firm which released its annual list of top ten most expensive cities on Tuesday. Tel Aviv fell from fifth to seventh place this year.

ECA’s ranking is based on comparing prices of everyday goods and services like food, transportation, and infrastructure between 208 cities in 121 countries. The comparison was done over the course of 12 months from September 2019 through September 2020.

Hong Kong is more expensive across a variety of areas that were calculated, but the cost of living was particularly high compared to other cities in Asia. “Hong Kong is expensive in many areas we are considering as part of our research, but it ranks first because of the very high housing costs,” Lee Kuan, Director of Asia at ECA International said. This is despite some real estate prices falling last year in response to lower demand due to pandemics and ongoing political uncertainty.”

Tokyo was ranked second, followed by New York City(3), and Geneva (4). The four top spots hadn’t changed from last year’s ranking. However, Zurich (5) and London (6) were rated higher this year as the pound (GBP) and euro strengthened. Seoul, San Francisco, and Yokohama, Japan were rated at the eighth, ninth, and tenth places respectively.