Dublin is officially more expensive to live in than London, but we’re not the worst

Dublin is officially a more expensive city to live in than London. A new report, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranked the world’s cities by cost of living and our capital is 11 paces ahead of the UK capital. We come in at number 19, six places higher than last year. Meanwhile, London has fallen back to number 30. Dublin also outranked Barcelona, Rome, Washington DC and Berlin.

We weren’t the worst though. Amoug the world’s five most expensive cities to live in, Singapore came out on top, closely followed by Paris, Zurich, Hong Kong and Oslo. There are no American cities in the top 10, with New York and Los Angeles landing in 13th and 14th places respectively.

The research takes into account many factors including the cost of groceries; personal care products and clothing; and public transport and utilities. It also factors in the cost of renting, which may be the main reason behind our massive jump. According to the most recent Daft.ie rental report, rent prices in Dublin have soared by 81% since late 2010, and you can’t open a newspaper without reading about the current housing crisis. What the survey doesn’t factor in is insurance or property prices – but we can’t have everything.

Sterling is much weaker since Britain announced it’s split from the EU, and that may explain why the city has slipped down the ranks to its lowest point in 20 years. According to global property news website PropertyWire.com, average rents for properties in the UK capital have fallen by 4.6%.