The Dean

Dubai and Abu Dhabi have fallen in the list of
the world's most expensive cities, despite soaring inflation in the United
Arab Emirates, according to the most recent cost-of-living survey by the
international consulting firm Mercer.
Dubai ranks as the 52nd most expensive city, while the U.A.E. capital
is at number 62.
"Dubai and Abu Dhabi have dropped significantly this year," the report
said. "This is mainly due to the U.A.E. dirham being pegged to the US
dollar."
The list showed Moscow as the most expensive city, Tokyo second, and
New York down to 22nd from 15th last year.
Tel Aviv is again the most expensive city in the Middle East. It ranked
14th on the global list, up three places from 2007.
The survey of 143 cities compares the cost of over 200 items, including
housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.
"Current market conditions have led to the further weakening of the US
dollar which, coupled with the strengthening of the Euro and many other
currencies, has caused significant changes in this year's rankings," said
Yvonne Traber, a principal and research manager at Mercer.

admon

Really does show that this survey is a load of codshite...

W10

not really, once you factor property and electricity out of the equation. Dubai is cheap as chips for day to day living. Its just expats who live the high life.

niddy

When I heard of this I couldn't believe it as this is horseshit. They must be excluding housing in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Housing costs in Abu Dhabi are now at par with New York City. Another thing is the methodology is wrong as it doesn't look at income gained in the country but looks at what tourist money gets you when you visit the country. Just doesn't seem very sound.

admon

what a load of tosh..

renting a 1 bedroom apartment for a single person or a family renting a 3 bed villa is hardly 'living the high life'.

Essential costs for food have sky rocketed in the last 3 years, many items have doubled or more in price.

And as for it being 'expats who live the high life' a lot of expats here spend very small cheese here compared to a lot of the locals..

Blue Cat

I agree W10, take rent out of the equation and day to day living really isn't expensive at all. When visiting the UK I spend way more in Asda than I ever do here in Choithrams. It's down to lifestyle at the end of the day

admon

Thats just plain wrong. Bar a few items, food is far more expensive here - and I shop at tesco every 6-8 weeks.

Beard Man

how much it cost here for one pepsi for example and how much it cost in the UK


please note that we don't have taxes (yet and hopefully never) at this part of the world.


and please note that the increase in the rent values is due to supply and demand but once there will be many new buildings .. i think prices will drop

and as you said once .. the fall wont be soft.

niddy

Yeah, well isn't Dubai glutted with thousands of empty units? I think that most experts put the numbers at anywhere between 8-12K. If anything, prices should be dropping in Dubai, but they are not showing any signs of that happening. I doubt the situation will be corrected any time soon. But, I do think there will be a housing crash in a few years because property prices are being driven up by speculation and short term investors.

Spugsy

thats total bollocks mate, maybe if you do big shops at spinneys, but get yourself to hyperpanda or whatever, we had a full trolley of food yesterday, yone of meat and fresh fruit and veg plus a hand blender, some kitchen scales, a pan and loads of other stuff and it was less than £100, you'll get nowt for that back in Newcastle at Sainsburys.

Spugsy

well I hope so, once people's 3 years leases run out they have to move to smaller places as the cost has risen so much, in fact I think this maybe be happening to the delectable MM.

admon

If you are into the 'discount' food shopping, ie buying non brands then of course it is cheaper than buying quality branded goods, BUT if you buy cheap asda tesco brands they are still cheaper than the cheap brands here.

There are a lot of question marks also over companies in the ME and asia region relabelling out of date food, of which these cheaper brands are often part of. On a regular basis another of these companies gets 'caught in the act' and taken to court.

As for meat, the quality of meat at hyper panda is shite and it isnt cheap - the Uk 'market butchers' sell far better quality at a price that is still cheaper than the tatty meat at Hyper Panda.

If you want to buy 1dhs tins of beans and the like, then there really is no comparison to the food quality of this, to equivalent food available in the Uk - the UK quality is far higher.

Food manufacturers and packers in the ME and Asia region have ZERO health and safety in comparison to the UK.
While I don't profess to have the diet of a supermodel, I care a bit more about the food I put inside my body on a daily basis than to risk continually buying the really cheap tat food available in some supermarkets here.
After all you only live once. Saving a few quid to eat rubbish is a pretty pointless exercise.

So to eat quality food here, the UAE supermarkets are more expensive, as I stated.
If certain people wish to eat for plenty cheap, good luck to them..

shiva

i bet you buy imported veg and flown in waitrose pap as well.

admon

I eat whatever I want big boy

Spugsy

eat cheap? You're talking more shite than before, HyperPanda is sound, the meat is fine, the fruit and veg is great, we doing fine moneywise and could shop anywhere we like but choose hyperpanda, it's a shame you look down your nose at people who don't have 'branded' food like yourself, they sell all this that you talk about, unless of course you want shite english frozen foods?