Synopsis
The other surveyed cities — Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Pune — offer accommodation costs that are over 50% lower than Mumbai. Among these cities, Kolkata claims the lowest cost of expatriate accommodation, providing a more affordable option for residents and expatriates.
Getty ImagesMumbai ranks among the most expensive cities in India for accommodation rentals, closely followed by New Delhi and Bengaluru, according to Mercer’s 2023 Cost of Living survey released today.
The other surveyed cities — Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Pune — offer accommodation costs that are over 50% lower than Mumbai. Among these cities, Kolkata claims the lowest cost of expatriate accommodation, providing a more affordable option for residents and expatriates.
The current macroeconomic landscape has spurred organisations to reassess their global mobility programmes with a focus on employee experience, balanced with economics. It is also implying a closer monitoring of specific factors such as currency fluctuations, cost inflation for goods and services, and instability of accommodation prices that are essential to determining the cost of expatriate packages for employees on international assignments.
This year’s ranking includes 227 cities from across five continents. It measures the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each location, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. The data collected provides all of the key information employers need to design efficient and transparent compensation packages for international assignees.
Mumbai and New Delhi rank among the top 35 most expensive cities in Asia for expatriates, among those surveyed in 2023.
However, Mumbai moves down one spot within Asian cities, to 27th position from the previous year (2022).
Based on the most recent findings, rental prices have shown an upward trend across all surveyed Indian cities. Mumbai stands out with the most significant surge, witnessing an increase of 13-15% compared to 2022. In other surveyed cities such as Bengaluru, New Delhi, Pune, and Chennai, housing rentals have seen a rise ranging from 5-7%. However, Hyderabad and Kolkata experienced comparatively modest increases, with rental prices going up by approximately 2-3%.
"We have observed a change in the relative positioning of Indian cities in the global ranking, which can be attributed to multiple factors. In particular, the shifting order is partly influenced by currency volatility and the inflationary increase in prices of goods and services in other regions, such as Europe, that has played a role in pushing down the overall rankings of Indian cities," said Rahul Sharma, India mobility leader, Mercer.
Indian cities, such as Mumbai (147) and New Delhi (169), offer a cost-efficient destination for global multinational corporations (MNCs) looking to set up operations overseas, with lower cost of living and expat accommodation costs compared to major cities in the Asia Pacific region like Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo.
( Originally published on Jun 07, 2023 )
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