Bangkok up five places to 35th most expensive city in the world for foreigners

 

Image: Bangkok Biz News

 

Bangkok Biz News reported on a survey conducted by financial analysts Mercer who looked at 209 countries worldwide in relation to expense for foreigners.

 

Bangkok went from 40th place last year to 35th most expensive this year. 

 

Six Asian cities were in the top ten and three were in Switzerland. 

 

Top place for the third year in a row went to Hong Kong that was followed by Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, that passed Tokyo in third. 

 

Swiss cities Zurich, Bern and Geneva came in 4th, 8th and 9th respectively.

 

New York went from ninth to sixth in the rankings. 

 

Singapore was 7th with Chinese mega-cites Shanghai and Beijing in 7th and 10th. 

 

London went up four places to 19th and Paris dropped three from 47th to 50th.

 

Mercer reckoned that Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, was the cheapest for foreigners. 

 

Source: Bangkok Biz News

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-06-11

 

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Rubbish news, Mercer is an index for COMPANIES sending their employes to foreign countries.

 

 

Quote

Mercer is the leading provider of data on cost of living and housing for employees sent to work abroad. As part of the ongoing research, Mercer produces these annual rankings of the cost of living in more than 200 of the most prevalent assignment destinations for expatriate employees. The rankings demonstrate how currency fluctuation and shifts in the prices of goods and services can affect the purchasing power of expatriate employees. Multinational companies rely on Mercer for timely and accurate information to compensate their skilled professionals who take on international assignments.

 

 

Not much to do with normal expats just staying here that don't work for multinationals.

 

 

13 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Rubbish news, Mercer is an index for COMPANIES sending their employes to foreign countries.

 

Not much to do with normal expats just staying here that don't work for multinationals.

 

Why not? What is the difference?

12 minutes ago, Oldie said:

Why not? What is the difference?

 

There are expats working for multinationals who rent an expensive condo in the city center, send their children to international schools, and do their shopping for food at Tesco. And there are normal expats who do not do things like that. They live cheap.

But to be part of the first group you really have to work for a company that sent you to BKK to work here. And not a normal company, it must be a multinational.

 

Do you now understand? ????

 

 

 

How can Bangkok be expensive? I invited my (very rich) ex boss and  long time friend to visit and after a few years he finally agreed to stop over on a business trip. Arrived last year this is what he had to say with a smile  - “If you see it realistically it’s a stinking filthy dump without culture and the quality of life of a giant slum. No fancy new high rise condos or 5* hotels can cover that up.” So this is the objective view of a person who did not really want to visit - only visited here as a favor to me. I was shocked and realized that a might see Bangkok and Thailand through some kind of rose colored glasses still after all these years. 

Right, they only take into account the same goods you purchase in the employes homecountry etc. 

 

Normal expats here with thai family just eat thai food, send their kids who have a thai passport to a thai school that isn't english only, get a house in a thai neighbourhood, use thai health insurance etc.

 

Pensioners and beach bums like me who don't have kids don't have any of the international school costs that is the biggest part of mercers index.... 

 

The weighting is just so completely different for most people that these indexes don't make any sense to look at. 

 

Paris is supposed to be cheaper than Bangkok according to them, yeah... not for normal people, no way. You can't drink enough red wine to make up for the rental property costs in paris alone. Not to mention many expats here live a tax free life as they earn money outside of Thailand...

 

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=France&city1=Paris&country2=Thailand&city2=Bangkok

 

 

Pick the numbers that are your biggest expense from a site like numbeo and compare yourself, for me that would be 

 

1) House/Rental costs

2) Food

3) Taxes

4) Utilities

5) Transportation/Taxis - i can totally life without a car here, taxis are dirt cheap... 

 

 

The rest is more or less irrelevant for my budget. 

 

1 hour ago, dimitriv said:

 

There are expats working for multinationals who rent an expensive condo in the city center, send their children to international schools, and do their shopping for food at Tesco. And there are normal expats who do not do things like that. They live cheap.

But to be part of the first group you really have to work for a company that sent you to BKK to work here. And not a normal company, it must be a multinational.

 

Do you now understand? ????

 

 

 

No I do not understand why you think it is necessary to be 'rich' to shop at Tesco.

24 minutes ago, boonrawdcnx said:

How can Bangkok be expensive? I invited my (very rich) ex boss and  long time friend to visit and after a few years he finally agreed to stop over on a business trip. Arrived last year this is what he had to say with a smile  - “If you see it realistically it’s a stinking filthy dump without culture and the quality of life of a giant slum. No fancy new high rise condos or 5* hotels can cover that up.” So this is the objective view of a person who did not really want to visit - only visited here as a favor to me. I was shocked and realized that a might see Bangkok and Thailand through some kind of rose colored glasses still after all these years. 

 Applies to any capital city on the planet.

Almost any long-termer will agree that Bangkok is not the comparative bargain it once was, which is why we see so much griping about the strength of the Baht. 

2 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Rubbish news, Mercer is an index for COMPANIES sending their employes to foreign countries.

 

 

 

 

Not much to do with normal expats just staying here that don't work for multinationals.

 

 

Exactly. A meaningless measure for most of us. This index refers to the kind of people who buy Uncle Ben's rice when in Thailand.

34 minutes ago, Traubert said:

 Applies to any capital city on the planet.

Complete rubbish. Paris, Rome and London have no culture? You know nothing.

2 hours ago, Oldie said:

Why not? What is the difference?

The corporate expats buy the same stuff they would in a European/American/Australian etc supermarket, i.e. expensive imports. We residents don't. Got it now?

2 hours ago, sprq said:

The corporate expats buy the same stuff they would in a European/American/Australian etc supermarket, i.e. expensive imports. We residents don't. Got it now?

We residents do. At least I do.

Another way of Cost of Living Comparison:  
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=France&country2=Thailand&city1=Paris&city2=Pattaya&tracking=getDispatchComparison

2 hours ago, sprq said:

The corporate expats buy the same stuff they would in a European/American/Australian etc supermarket, i.e. expensive imports. We residents don't. Got it now?

Since it sometimes seems as though half the posts on TVF concern where to buy various imported products and how much the price of those products has gone up or down, I would have to disagree. The fact is that non-corporate foreigners in Bangkok run the gamut from rich to poor, and from living a totally "Thai" lifestyle to living a totally "expat" lifestyle. One can't generalize about what "we residents" do or don't do.

3 hours ago, sprq said:

Complete rubbish. Paris, Rome and London have no culture? You know nothing.

At least in Bangkok you can go out at night without getting robbed, mugged or killed. This kind of culture you're talking about?

What purchases do they base their assumptions on. Prices in Makro BKK are the same as Pattaya and all over Thailand....if they are talking about champagne and cocktails I get it, but not your normal shopping basket foodstuffs, transport and utilities.

3 hours ago, sprq said:

Exactly. A meaningless measure for most of us. This index refers to the kind of people who buy Uncle Ben's rice when in Thailand.

Don’t laugh too much.  If the Baht keeps rising, Uncle Bens rice, Rice Krispies and Rice-A-Roni, will all appear in your local 7 Eleven stores.

IMO - the I’m is cheaper on nearly all accounts. But, only if comparing apples to oranges i.e. Comparing Bangkok to a provincial town in the UK. 
 

London is crazy expensive for accommodation. However, for the same price as a decent house in Bkk a lovely house can be purchased in the British countryside. 
 

Quality food is cheaper in the UK. Ok, someone could live on street noodles, but come-on, that’s scraping the barrel. 
 

While cars a much much cheaper in the UK, general transport is not. 
 

& if course, wine, cheese, quality bread, decent meat and clean organic veg is cheaper in the UK, though there are many fruits & veg that are cheaper from the ‘wet markets’ the quality is often questionable.

 

It’s all swings & roundabouts, but on aggregate I find the UK cheaper, and that’s before Int’l school fees in bkk. 
 

I recently ran a very detailed cost analysis. Bangkok is about £20k per year more expensive than living in the quiet countryside in the UK (apples vs oranges because that’s not comparing bkk to London - but I can get guess me level I’d civilization in the I’m countryside which can’t be said of the Thai countryside)  

 

6 hours ago, dimitriv said:

There are expats working for multinationals who rent an expensive condo in the city center, send their children to international schools, and do their shopping for food at Tesco.

…and there are 204 countries that made the list are less expensive to do so.

 

6 hours ago, dimitriv said:

And there are normal expats who do not do things like that. They live cheap.

So, shopping at Tesco is out of your budget? Yes, I agree one could live on 10,000 THB a month like the local presents and drive a Honda dream with side car and shop at the local talad. Many Farangs do. I'm not so sure that's the “normal” however.  

 

Do you now understand? ????

13 hours ago, dimitriv said:

shopping for food at Tesco

Since when has Tesco been considered expensive? 

If you think Tesco is expensive, you should head to Villa lol, a bag for 4k.

Where's the link to the full list and the detail cost of living?

On 6/11/2020 at 9:51 AM, webfact said:

Mercer reckoned that Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, was the cheapest for foreigners

Met an US American 6/7 yrs ago who lived there for this reason, but he moved to the UAE when the ISIS threat started ramping up. I traveled in and out for a couple of years there (and offshore), seemed like a good place.

The great thing about Bangkok is it can be as expensive or cheap as you want. Sometimes we go to Villa Market or Foodland and spend 5k on imported goods to use at home, other weeks we might go to the market and spend 500b on vegetables etc.

 

Same with eating out (or in at the moment), we spent about 150b recently on some noodles, we also spent about 2k on a big Italian takeaway. There are lots of cities around the world where you aren't given these choices.

 

I would say there are no huge expenses living here. The only things I can think of for myself are playing golf, a big night out drinking and maybe our car that would be cheaper in the UK.

 

Our mortgage is cheaper, cinema and entertainment are cheaper, bills are cheaper, our monthly spending is cheaper, I save considerably more working here than when I was working in England etc. Our biggest annual expense would probably be our holidays abroad each year. The only thing that I think would effect a lot of expats and expat families is international school fees for their children. Thankfully I am one of the lucky ones that is given it for free. 

 

 

As with most of these types of surveys, they are outdated before publishing. Give it 2 years, unless major Government change, and Thailand is going it will be the cheapest, because no one will want to come here.

 

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