Singapore is still the most expensive city to live in
SINGAPORE -- Singapore is the world's most expensive city to live in -- a title it's held for the past three years in the Economist Intelligence Unit's bi-annual ranking.
The city state is ahead of Zurich and Hong Kong, which are tied for second place, followed by Geneva and Paris.
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The survey of 133 cities measured the cost of 160 daily items and services from food and toiletries, to the price of transportation and utility bills.
It seems Singapore's living costs were pushed up by heavily taxed goods and services, such as car ownership and alcohol.
The report measured transportation here at about 2.7 times more costly than that in New York. Cars in Singapore are notoriously expensive, at about $153,000 for the average car compared with $22,000 in New York, it said.
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Despite the high cost of owning a private vehicle -- thanks to high taxes imposed to discourage car ownership -- it's estimated that about 45% of households in Singapore own at least one car.
In the sample "basket of goods" that the EIU used to measure each city, it found the average price of a bottle of wine in Singapore was $22.39, higher than $16.47 in Hong Kong and $14.03 in New York.
Still, Singaporeans can perhaps take some comfort in knowing that the cost of living here is headed downward a little. It's 10% cheaper compared to New York as a benchmark, as it was a year ago in the same survey. The EIU noted that Singapore offers roughly the same value as New York for basic groceries, where Seoul is 33% more expensive, and it's 26% costlier in Tokyo. "(This) implies that value for money can be found by those who seek it," it said.
Singapore kicked Tokyo off the list in 2013; the Japanese capital is tied with Shanghai for the 11th spot in this year's report.
Top 10 most expensive cities:
1. Singapore
2. Zurich and Hong Kong (tied)
4. Geneva
5. Paris
6. London
7. New York
8. Copenhagen, Seoul, Los Angeles (tied)
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Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band
