A tale of 82 cities: survey shows expats fell out of love with Hong Kong long before violent anti-government protests hit
- Expensive housing, high cost of living, long working hours and dirty streets all combine to drop city to 52nd on global list
- Taipei ranks highest in new study, with Singapore and Shanghai both doing better in study conducted before civil unrest started
Hong Kong has lost its preferred status among the world’s expats, plummeting down a list of places people like to live thanks to soaring flat prices, a high cost of living and long working hours.
A new survey has ranked it 52nd out of 82 cities globally, behind Singapore, Shanghai and Taipei.
Other complaints included dirty streets and high pollution, both of which contributed to the city dropping from 10th in the same study five years ago.
Last year, Hong Kong was ranked 49th, or three places higher than this year, but the sample size was different, which required at least 45 respondents per city.
Conducted by 3.5 million-member expatriate networking website InterNations in February and March, the survey this year ranked Hong Kong the fifth most expensive city to move to in the world, with nine out of 10 expats reportedly unhappy with the city’s expensive flats.
Foreigners were also dissatisfied with the dirty streets, high pollution and the lack of a work-life balance.