Blantyre among world’s cheapest cities

Jun 23, 2017 Business 90
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Malawi’s commercial city of Blantyre has been named as one of the world’s cheapest cities for expatriates.

This has been established by the 2017 Mercer’s Cost of Living Survey conducted in African, Asian, American and European cities.

Ranked 205, Blantyre is among the five cheapest cities all over the world, with Tunis being the cheapest. The world’s least expensive cities for expatriates also include Bishkek (208) in Kyrgyzstan, Skopje (206) in Macedonia and Windhoek (206) in Namibia.

Blantyre Clock Tower
Named one of the cheapest cities for expatriates

This means that people who may come to Malawi can’t spend a lot compared to other cities across Africa and the world at large because cost of living is cheap.

According to the report, the costliest city in the world, driven by cost of goods and security, is Luanda, the capital of Angola.

Mercer has also established that quite a few African cities continue to rank high this year, reflecting high living costs and prices of goods for expatriate employees.

“Luanda (1) takes the top spot as the most expensive city for expatriates across Africa and globally despite its currency weakening against the US dollar. Luanda is followed by Victoria (14), Ndjamena (16), and Kinshasa (18). Tunis falls six spots to rank 209 as the least expensive city in the region and overall,” say a press release from Mercer.

Mercer’s 23rd annual Cost of Living Survey finds that Asian and European cities – particularly Hong Kong (2), Tokyo (3), Zurich (4), and Singapore (5) – top the list of most expensive cities for expatriates.

Other cities appearing in the top 10 of Mercer’s costliest cities for expatriates are Seoul (6), Geneva (7), Shanghai (glasses emoticon, New York City (9), and Bern (10).

The figures for Mercer’s cost of living and rental accommodation costs comparisons are derived from a survey conducted in March 2017.

The survey includes over 400 cities across five continents and measures the comparative cost of more than 200 items in each city, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment.

According to Mercer, it uses New York as a base for comparing cost of living in other cities and the cities are measured on how local currency of such countries (cities) is trading against United States Dollar on money market.

Government and major companies use data from this survey to protect the purchasing power of their employees when transferred abroad; rental accommodation costs data is used to assess local expatriate housing allowances.

Here is the top ten expensive cities in the world:
1-Luanda in Angola.
2-Hong Kong in Hong Kong.
3-Tokyo in Japan.
4-Zurich in Switzerland.
5- Singapore in Singapore.
6-Seoul in South Korea.
7- Geneva in Switzerland.
8-Shanghai in China.
9-New York City in United States.
10-Bern in Switzerland.

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90 Comments

  8. it looks like many people who are commenting on this post dont really understand what u mean by ‘CHEAP CITY’..Is it QUALITY of the city or COST OF LIVING?? its funny people are just arguing over the article they dont even understand.

    1. This article is surely talking about the cost of living in Blantyre city that it’s cheap, compared to other big cities out there. And even me I am wondering why people are just commenting without reading and understanding the whole a
      article.

    3. I agree with you they don’t understand the word cheap city it means things are alright not bad same like in SA in Johannesburg things are cheaper to compare with other cities because things are manufacturing near by same like my beloved BLANTURE city things are manufacturing in Blantyre and transportation is cheap that makes it cheap please in future read to understand , you can compare Lilongwe with BLANTYRE , there is nothing there in Lilongwe I don’t real understand why people so proud of Lilongwe

  10. Its true Blantyre is the cheapest city
    In terms of leaving
    For example
    Bus fare
    From Chilimba to Limbe only at 150mk
    Resthouse 3000 mk self contain
    While LL city
    From Town to 25
    Its 350mk
    Selfcontains rooms are at 7000mk

  14. Koma a Malawi kkkkkk wina akunyoza Malawi ena akuombera mmanja, just because amakhala ku LL, ZA, MZ etc. Don’t you know that ngati akunyoza BT ndiye kuti akunyoza your country?

    Nokhanokha apa kulumana. Kkkkkkkkkkk What do you call this habit you are doing? Racism, discrimination or stupidity?

  18. Thats true if we can compere with Lilongwe, life in blantyre is cheaper than in Lilongwe, come to Lilongwe and experience life here, you can not pay K35 thousand house rent, K35 thousand is for getwing in Lilongwe, while in blantyre its easy, that K35 thousand is enough, you can manege life in blantyre if u are poor. Everything is very expessive in Lilongwe unlike in blantyre, if u want to enjoy life come to Blantyre bcoz its a nice place to stay unlike LL, but if u want to make money through farming then Lilongwe is the best place for agriculture activities, no wonder there is money in LL unlike BT, but BT is a beautiful city unlike LL!

    3. @ Kaliba, but in LL it doesn’t show if somebody has money or not because life is very expessive there, u can manege the life in LL with little, whole in BT u can enjoy the life to the fullest with that little u may strunggle to have!

    4. Well said Lilongwe is ugly city is good for farming and rearing animals

  24. Koma ziliko eee kkkkkkkk tokaludzanso mpila azati is a cheapest team titan amalawi tizatamandilidwa mwina ndi UFITI kapena CASHGATE kapenanso NGODZI Palibe chabwino mmmmm .

  28. Have been saying all along kut we don’t have cities kapena tauni pa Malawi pano ndpo musiye kupanga kupanga matama chifukwa choti m’makhala ku Nyambadwe–PROUDLY THYOLOAN

    2. I bet Mount Soche isn’t the only hotel in Blantyre, nor do its rates represent the city’s average. Secondly, there are much more expensive hotels elsewhere.

  46. Says who? Let the embecile who said so come and live there. Kungobwera uko basi kumatinamiza. Za zii. u come here to do ur research everything paid for. then u conclude that Blantyre is the cheapest city

    4. we pay traffic police, Immigration officers, City council for services we r not supposed to pay for. do these people even know what black outs and water shortages cost us? to get electricity connection i need to pay an extra amount without a receit too

    6. if the accomodation in Btown is cheap, go in Jo’burg and see the shacks in which some people live in. Are those shacks made of iron sheets expensive?

    9. Some body leaves btown and goes to tha most expensive city and he comes rich , in the cheapest people r failing even to afford a 1500 perfume. get a life. ok , i might

    11. foolish idiots you have been ruling this nation for 50 years komano what have you achieved? google this Blantyre was the first township to be declared a city in central Africa, yet now it goes 18 times into Harare. and you are happy you mindless people? #Shame

    12. tiyeni tizingokhala, kumalawi kuno palibe koti nkumaima pachulu nkumanyadira…we Wil start dvelopn tikazatseguka mmaso. Kamene tikukaona ngati kapamwamba kumalawi kuno, ndi the poorest in the world…
      Kkkkk

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