Singapore, Bangalore beat Hong Kong in Deutsche Bank’s worldwide quality-of-life poll. Beijing is in second-last position
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Hong Kong has been ranked 44th out of 56 cities for its quality of life, in a survey released by Deutsche Bank on Monday. It ranked behind Asian peers Tokyo (14), Singapore (23), Seoul (29) and Bangalore (33) in the “Mapping the World’s Prices 2019” poll, but was ahead of Beijing, which came in at 55th, just ahead of Lagos in Nigeria.
In its eighth year, the survey has ranked cities on the basis of prices of goods and services to shine a light on incomes and purchasing power, safety, health care, housing affordability, traffic, pollution and the climate. The poll used internet surveys and secondary sources.
“There are 21 megacities out of the 56 in our quality-of-life sample and, all bar Tokyo, are in the bottom half on a quality-of-life basis, with the bottom 12 all being developing country megacities, which are also generally near the bottom in salaries,” Deutsche Bank said.
“This exercise looks at average salaries, so megacities will have more people on much higher salaries … but the average worker struggles for income after rent and quality-of-life relative to smaller global cities. Aspiration must keep them going,” the bank added.
Hong Kong ranked higher than other Asian cities, including Shanghai, Jakarta, Dhaka, Manila and Beijing.
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Bangalore's ranking improved the most in Asia, with the city climbing four places in 2019 year on year. Singapore rose three places, but Tokyo, Hong Kong and Beijing all fell one place during last year.
The gap between Hong Kong and Singapore has widened between 2014 and 2019, with Hong Kong dropping 12 places and Singapore rising by eight.
Singapore also had a higher overall ranking, as it did better on health care, pollution and affordability of housing, while Hong Kong ranked higher on safety and climate conditions.
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But when it came to technology start-ups, Hong Kong was ahead, according to Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of locally headquartered but Australia-listed online gaming developer Animoca Brands.
“Tokyo may have fresh air and good food, but it’s hard for foreign start-ups to integrate due to the relatively low use of English. In Hong Kong, English is common and strong and, therefore, allows for more diversity and integration of global talent, which is a key ingredient for innovation. Plus, food in Hong along is excellent too,” Siu said.
“Singapore has similar advantages, but does not have the same proximity to a big market like China, and its related opportunities,” he added.
Hong Kong was, however, the most expensive city worldwide to rent a two-bedroom apartment in, at US$3,685 a month, ahead of San Francisco at US$3,631 and New York at US$2,909, the survey said.
Zurich ranked top in terms of quality of life globally, but lost out to San Francisco in terms of income. The Swiss city was also the most expensive to go out on a date, followed by Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Tokyo.
The report’s “bad habits” index, which tracks prices of five beers and two packs of cigarettes, found Melbourne to be the most expensive this year, surpassing Oslo which ranked top last year. Sydney, Auckland and Dubai made up the top five.
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Moscow and Istanbul had the cheapest internet in the world. Oslo had the most expensive two litre bottle of Coca-Cola at US$4.73 this year, while Turkey was the cheapest at 74 US cents. Hong Kong and Singapore were similar at US$1.91 and US$1.83. respectively.
The special administrative region was, however, the third most expensive city to have a cappuccino in, at US$5.70, cheaper only than Dubai, at US$6, and Copenhagen, at US$6.30. Milan had the cheapest cappuccino worldwide, at US$1.70.
