Tel Aviv costly? It’s world’s 9th most expensive city

Tel Aviv has been ranked as the world’s ninth most expensive city, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. The ranking is based on the cost of a basket of 160 products and services including basic foods, clothing, car rental and purchase, apartment rents, and household maintenance and equipment.

The EIU noted, “Tel Aviv, which was ranked 34th just five years ago, is now the ninth most expensive city in the survey. Currency appreciation played a part in this rise, but Tel Aviv also has some specific costs that drive up prices, notably those of buying, insuring and maintaining a car, which push transport costs 79% above New York prices. Tel Aviv is also the second most expensive city in the survey in which to buy alcohol.”

Tel Aviv is ranked behind Singapore (1), Paris (2), Zurich (3), Hong Kong (4), Oslo (5), Geneva (6), Seoul (7), and Copenhagen (8). Sydney is in 10th place and New York in 13th place is the most expensive US city.

Baker Tilly partner and head of the strategy consulting division Yaki Baranes said, “The continued rise in the cost of living in Tel Aviv expresses the continued trend of the transformation of Tel Aviv and its environs into the power block of Israel in terms of production and economic power. Consequently, the continued rise of demand for living in it, which in turn pushes up prices and the cost of living.”

(Globes/TNS)