Karachi (left) and Islamabad (right) have been named as one of the cheapest cities in the world for expats in 2019. Photo: File

Karachi and Islamabad have been named as one of the cheapest cities in the world for expats in 2019 by the consulting firm Mercer, Bloomberg reported.

The ranking looks at 209 cities around the world, measuring the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.

According to the Cost of Living survey, eight of the top 10 cities named are in Asia, up from six entries in 2018. The least expensive city for expats is Tunis in Tunisia, with Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent on second and Karachi on third in the world of a total 209 cities.

Pakistan’s federal capital Islamabad is ranked seventh, followed by Tbilisi in Georgia, Skopje, Macedonia and Managua, Nicaragua rounding up the top 10.

Last year, Karachi had been named as the sixth cheapest in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit out of a total of 133 cities.

Photo: CNBC

Worlds most expensive cities

At the other end of the scale, the most expensive cities for expats this year were in Asia. Hong Kong was placed top for 2019 for a second consecutive year, with Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul and Zurich rounding out the top five.

According to the survey, Asia’s dominance of the top 10 was largely due to strong housing markets.

High demand and short supply have driven property prices in Hong Kong to “unaffordable” levels in recent years, with the territory planning to build an $80 billion artificial island to help fix the crisis.

The report also added, Hong Kong’s currency was pegged to the US dollar, which drove up the cost of living locally.

Photo: CNBC



