Household Accommodation Cost of Living October 2012

The October 2012 most expensive places for household accommodation items such as apartment purchase, mortgage rate, rental, and utilities.

Xpatulator’s Cost of Living rankings are released every quarter and measure the comparative cost of living for expatriates in 780 locations, covering every country worldwide. The cost of living comparison to other places, uses local prices for defined quantities of the same goods and services at or near each location, converted to a single currency. The prices are grouped together into basket groups and the cost of living index calculated for each basket.

Hong Kong has been ranked high for housing for many years and it is no surprise to find this location in the number one spot again for this quarter. Hong Kong rentals for a secure up-market unfurnished apartment (3 bedrooms) averages $8,422 in a central location (compared to $6,749 in Manhattan), and $4,284 in a suburban location, per month, excluding utilities.

However, it is Monaco which has the highest rental for a 3 bedroom apartment in a central location averaging $9,500 per month, followed by Hong Kong at just over $8,400, Hamilton in Bermuda at around $7,200 and Luanda in Angola at $7,100.

Monaco is the most expensive place to purchase a 3 bedroom apartment in a central location averaging $36,900 / M², Hong Kong is second at $17,200 / M² and Tokyo at $16,800 / M².

Utilities including power, water, garbage and local taxes for a 1 bedroom apartment has Hong Kong as the most expensive at just under $260 per month, followed by Kawasaki in Japan at just over $210 a month and Fukuoka in Japan at just over $205 per month.

Xpatulator.com’s Cost of Living Data is based on prices for the same quantity and quality of goods and services, representative of an expatriate lifestyle, in each city. The data is collected and updated on a quarterly basis. The cost of living data is used by Xpatulator.com clients to calculate salary purchasing power parity, cost of living allowances and customized cost of living indexes (i.e. clients can select their own base city) for expatriate assignments online, using the 3 premium content calculators.

The 13 basket groups do not count equally and are weighted according to expatriate expenditure norms as follows (weighting percentage is in brackets):

Alcohol and Tobacco (2%): for items such as beer, spirits, wine and cigarettes.
Clothing (2.4%): for items such as business, casual and children's clothing and footwear.
Communication (2%): for items such as home telephone rental, Internet subscription, mobile tariff and data costs.
Education (5%): for items such as creche / pre-school fees, primary school fees, high school fees and tertiary study fees.
Furniture and Appliances (5%): for items such as dining table and chairs, home entertainment, kitchen appliances, and sofa.
Groceries (16.5%): for items such as consumables, cleaning products, dairy, fresh fruit & vegetables, general food products, snacks, soft drinks.
Healthcare (5%): for items such as doctor visit, hospital stay, non-prescription medicine, and medical insurance.
Household (30%): for items such as apartment purchase, mortgage rate, rental, and utilities.
Miscellaneous (3%): for items such as dry cleaning, linen, magazines, newspapers, office supplies, and postage stamps.
Personal Care (3%): for items such as cosmetics, hair care, and toiletries.
Recreation and Culture (6%): for items such as books, cinema, sport and theatre tickets.
Restaurants, Meals Out and Hotels (2%): for items such as hotel daily room rates, meals and beverages in restaurants, and take away food and beverages
Transport (18%): for items such as fuel (petrol/gasoline), public transport, vehicle purchase and maintenance.

To provide an assignee, sent from a low cost of living country to a more expensive country, with a similar purchasing power to what they have in their home country, requires an adjustment to their assignment salary. The amount of adjustment depends on which country they come from. The larger the difference in cost of living, the larger the adjustment required, to ensure a similar level of purchasing power in the host country.

Xpatulator.com runs one of the most comprehensive cost of living ranking surveys in the world, covering more locations than any other company. The site includes free international cost of living overviews and rank information covering 13 cost of living baskets and 780 international locations as well as 3 premium content calculators:

- Salary Purchasing Power Parity
- Cost of Living Allowance
- Cost of Living Index

Follow Xpatulator.com on Twitter @Xpatulator
Blog with us on http://blog.xpatulator.com/
For more information on Xpatulator.com please visit www.xpatulator.com.

The October 2012 Full Household Accommodation Basket cost of living rank for all international locations is as follows:

This article may be freely copied as long as reference is made to http://www.xpatulator.com/