Mumbai becomes the costliest city in India; Chennai at 3rd spot

CHENNAI: According to Mercer’s 2022 survey Mumbai is the most expensive city in India and holds 127th rank in the world, in terms of both living and accommodation expenses, followed by New Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Pune and Kolkata are the least expensive Indian cities in the ranking.

The Cost-of-Living survey by Mercer was conducted in March 2022. This year's ranking is on the basis of a comparison of the prices of more than 200 commodities, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment in 227 cities spread across five continents.

The study highlights factors that contribute to daily costs, say, among the assessed Indian cities, Kolkata has the lowest cost of daily necessities such as milk, breads, vegetables, etc., while Mumbai and New Delhi have the highest costs. In terms of energy, phone costs, etc., the cost of home utilities is highest in Mumbai and lowest in Chennai and Hyderabad. Considering the entertainment factor, say, watching a movie in Mumbai is most expensive whereas Hyderabad is the cheapest.

The survey found that Hyderabad had the cheapest housing facilities of all the cities considered for the survey in India when evaluating the country's housing market. However, it is more expensive than Pune and Kolkata when both cost of living and housing are taken into account. Among other Indian cities, Mumbai has some of the most expensive rentals, followed by New Delhi and Bengaluru. The other Indian cities in the ranking - Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Kolkata have accommodation cost that are over 50% lesser than that of Mumbai.

Mumbai is known as the financial hub of India, as it is a popularly chosen for the establishments of multinational corporations. However, according to the reports, these organisations are also considering other less-expensive cities like Hyderabad and Pune owing to the greater cost-of-living.

Compared to other major cities in the Asia Pacific region, including Beijing, Shanghai and Manilla, Indian cities including Mumbai and New Delhi have a lower cost of living and emigrant accommodation, making it a cost-efficient destination for global MNCs to set up operations overseas.

Globally, Hong Kong ranked the most expensive city to live in followed by Zurich, Geneva, Basel, and Bern in Switzerland, Tel Aviv in Israel, New York in the US, Singapore, Tokyo in Japan, and Beijing in China.