New York is the most expensive city for an international company to send expat staff on assignments, according to new research.
International property firm Savills analysed living and office costs for cities across the world and found the costs of basing expats in New York ratcheted up by 2% in the first six months of the year.
The annual cost of a New York expat employee is now $114,010.
Hong Kong is just behind at 4100,984, while London is in third place at $100,141.
Savills also explained that the costs are changing as the Brexit vote for Britain to leave the European Union has depressed the value of sterling and triggered swings in many other currencies.
Brexit impacting living costs
Other places that have seen expat employment costs shift dramatically as a result of currency swings include Tokyo, Japan, where a strong yen saw the biggest global rise in office rents in dollar terms.
The Olympic 2016 city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has rents fall, which resulted in a 5% drop in prices in local currency but a 14%-dollar increase.
Lagos, Nigeria, has zoomed up the affordability rankings for employers with rents dropping by a fifth and the local currency weakening by 30% due to devaluation set off by falling oil prices.
Savills argues that firms wanting to locate to Europe should look at Berlin, Germany, and Dublin, Ireland, as both have low accommodation costs more akin to prices in Mumbai, India, or Lagos.
Yolande Barnes, a Savills director, said: “Office-based businesses in major world cities will spend around one-third of their total operating costs on accommodation as commercial rents and demands on salaries created by the cost of employees’ living accommodation.
“Fluctuations in these costs will have a significant bearing on how competitive a city is to employers.”
Expat costs in world cities
| Rank | City | Employee cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | $114,010 |
| 2 | Hong Kong | $100,984 |
| 3 | London | $100,141 |
| 4 | Tokyo | $85,331 |
| 5 | Paris | $82,880 |
| 6 | San Francisco | $66,268 |
| 7 | Singapore | $61,335 |
| 8 | Dubai | $53,913 |
| 9 | Sydney | $50,768 |
| 10 | Los Angeles | $50,215 |
| 11 | Miami | $49,946 |
| 12 | Lagos | $45,817 |
| 13 | Chicago | $45,456 |
| 14 | Dublin | $45,147 |
| 15 | Moscow | $43,966 |
| 16 | Shanghai | $42,577 |
| 17 | Berlin | $29,933 |
| 18 | Mumbai | $28,592 |
| 19 | Johannesburg | $20,905 |
| 20 | Rio de Janeiro | $19,188 |
Source: Savills World Research
