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For companies extending their business to the Asia Pacific region, Australian and New Zealand cities remain cost competitive destinations for global workers, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer. The survey covers 214 cities across five continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. Australia’s most expensive city, Sydney, ranked 24th, followed by Melbourne (33), Brisbane (55), Perth (60) and Canberra (74), while Adelaide (90) is the country’s least expensive city.

“In the past couple of years, corporate assignments have become truly global, with expatriates and ‘global assignees’ being transferred across all parts of the world,” says Nathalie Constantin-Métral, a Senior Researcher at Mercer. “However, global mobility is still an expensive undertaking for companies, so selection of the right candidates and a real understanding of the costs involved in relocating staff to other countries are essential - especially in today’s economic environment.”

Anthony Shippard, Senior Associate at Mercer, said for organisations to establish true ‘value of living’ in a particular location, they must also take quality of living standards into consideration when making these decisions. “If we take into account the results of Mercer’s 2010 Quality of Living survey earlier this year, it found that Australian and New Zealand cities rank among the world’s top 36 cities for overall quality of living, dominating the rankings in the Asia Pacific region,” Mr Shippard said.

Excerpt from: Mercer Worldwide Cost of Living Survey (www .mercer. com. au), 29 June 2010