Who Says It’s Cheaper To Live In The City?
We all know about it already—it’s more expensive to choose to live in the city than in the province, especially now that we’re talking about Manila. Buildings and infrastructures continue to grow in number. Food stores and restaurants are popping out with competitive prices, which are fine with city people as long as they got good and delicious delicacies. The value of homes and residencies is jumping. Everything about Manila is increasing. While it doesn’t keep the economy at the bottom, it does lead us to the fact that living is getting more and more expensive here not just for the locals but for expats as well.
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Stock Smarts Manila — June 15, 16, 22, 23, & 29, 2019
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Manila Ranked 109th
Manila just got ranked as 109th out of 210 expensive cities in the whole world. It’s actually shocking to see this city go up by 29 places in a span of just a year and among the places that went up, it’s the 4th most solid climb in the survey. Just imagine how high the jump was. In 2018, Manila was not on the 200 lists but now, we’re almost within the top hundred. Some of the cities that took the biggest jump include Ashgabat in Turkmenistan, from 43rd to 7th, Phnom Penh in Cambodia, from 142nd to 108th, and Havana in Cuba, from 165th to 133rd. This news should alarm both the government and private sectors to look into the factors that cause this sudden jump.
The Top 10 List
While Manila is placed in the middle of 2019 Cost of Living Ranking of Mercer, a human resource consulting firm, you should take note of the top 10 cities on the list. These include the following:
1. Hong Kong
2. Tokyo
3. Singapore
4. Seoul
5. Zurich
6. Shanghai
7. Ashgabat
8. Beijing
9. New York
10. Shenzhen
Being aware of the most expensive places in the world will help you with your decision if ever you’re planning to move to other countries like China and Japan. And for some who think living in the United States is the costliest thing to do, take a look at the top 10 list again. The regions where most people go to for vacation like Hong Kong and Singapore top the ranking.
Discovering The Factors
Now that Manila’s rank is higher than last year, both government and private sectors should join hands to discover the factors behind the sudden big jump. Yes, the Philippines is continuously attracting investors, businessmen, and talent from across the globe and the economy is pretty improving but those don’t explain why the cost of living is moving up drastically. It’s time to look deeper so to address and mitigate the factors in order to retain the competitiveness of the country. Just like the top 10 above, the authorities should consider the housing market as one of the factors that are boosting the living cost here in Manila.
