{{Singapore has topped 131 cities globally to become the world’s most expensive city to live in 2014, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).}}
The city’s strong currency combined with the high cost of running a car and soaring utility bills contributed to Singapore topping the list.
It is also the most expensive place in the world to buy clothes. Singapore replaces Tokyo, which topped the list in 2013.
Other cities making up the top five most expensive cities to live in are Paris, Oslo, Zurich and Sydney, with Tokyo falling to sixth place.
The EIU’s Worldwide Cost of Living Survey is a relocation tool that uses New York city as a base. It looks at more than 400 individual prices.
{{Soaring Asia}}
The top 10 cities this year have been dominated by Asian and Australasian cities as well as some in Europe.
“Improving sentiment in structurally expensive European cities combined with the continued rise of Asian hubs means that these two regions continue to supply most of the world’s most expensive cities,” said the editor of the report, Jon Copestake.
“But Asian cities also continue to make up many of the world’s cheapest, especially in the Indian subcontinent.”
Most Asian cities that top the list are there for predominantly higher costs of groceries. Tokyo is still at the top of the list for everyday food items.
However, not all Asian cities are tough on the wallet.
India’s major cities —including Mumbai and New Delhi— were found to be among the least expensive in the world.
Mumbai’s prices are kept low by large income inequality. The low wages of many of the city’s workers keep spending low, and government subsidies have helped them stay that way.
Outside of the subcontinent, Damascus in Syria saw the largest drop, becoming the fourth cheapest city in the world as the country’s ongoing conflict has led to plummeting prices.
While the EIU’s survey takes into account the cost of living, other firms employ different research methods.
Mercer conducts research to determine the most expensive cities for expatriate living.
It found that in 2013, Luanda, Angola was the hardest on expatriate wallets due to the difficulty of finding adequate secure housing, and the high price of imported goods.
As discontent grows, Singapore tightens noose on the rich.
Singapore is known as a tropical refuge for the world’s wealthy, endowed with exclusive residential enclaves, a marina for super-yachts, two casinos and an annual Formula
One race that brings in the global jet-set.
But as the orderly city-state comes within a whisper of overtaking Switzerland as the world’s largest offshore wealth hub, a growing public backlash is forcing the government to tone down its policies catering to the rich.
The government’s budget on Friday could raise levies on high-end cars and purchases of multiple properties, along with a possible widening of the top income-tax rate, say economists.
It would build on measures announced last year that cooled Singapore’s red-hot property market and targeted mostly rich homeowners.
With maximum income tax rates of 20 per cent and no capital gains tax, Singapore has long been synonymous with affluence, boasting the world’s highest concentration of millionaires.
Daimler’s Mercedes was the top selling car brand last year, followed by BMW, government data shows.
Businesses that service the wealthy say their clients fear the new policies could mark the start of a trend as the long-standing ruling party, under pressure since its worst-ever election showing in 2011, tries to ease the burden in a country where the average monthly wage is $3,705 ($2,315).
“There are a lot of people who don’t know what’s next,” said Juliet Poh, owner of SG Vehicles, which sells car brands Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin and Lamborghini.
Cars in Singapore are already expensive by most global standards owing to the cost of a government 10-year licence that must be purchased with each new vehicle.
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But in last year’s budget, the government introduced a new tiered tax system targeting luxury cars. The first S$20,000 ($15,900) of a car’s open market value is taxed at 100 per cent.
{People stand along the Marina Bay promenade in Singapore on March 4, 2014. The soaring cost of cars and utilities as well as a strong currency have made Singapore the world’s most expensive city, toppling Tokyo from the top spot}
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