World’s most expensive city 5, July 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Random.Tags: Luanda world's most expensive city, World's most expensive city
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The annual Mercer survey of the world’s most expensive city for expatriates has been released.
Ordinarily one would expect the likes of Tokyo, Geneva, New York, London or Moscow to top such lists. However, some severe lateral thinking or staggering guess-work is required if one is to guess the top city of 2010.
Think developing city in a (very) developing country. Think far, far, far outside the box. Think post-war torn, oil-fuelled, development induced white land-cruiser plagued hyperinflationary hole…closer; though the field is still fairly wide.
Luanda…capital of Angola. Anyone have that?
1. Luanda
2. Tokyo
3. Ndjamena (Chad, of course)
4. Moscow
5. Geneva
The Gulf blog 
Actually I’m not at all shocked – it cost me about $1500 US dollars to spend 6 weeks in Juba, South Sudan, just for accommodation alone, and that was a VERY good rate!
There are hotels there that literally have tents on their grounds that cost $300 US a night to stay in, and a lot of aid workers have to live there long-term (ie a year) – Ergo roughly $9,000 a month for rent.
That’s what happens when hundreds of aid workers and donors flood into a war-torn poverty stricken country all of a sudden and need working internet, laptops, printers and toyota landcruisers AND places to live at whatever price is going….
I’m researching living costs in Luanda. An apartment in the city centre comes in at $240,000 per year. Makes all my woes in Abu Dhabi fall into perspective.