Asia continues to dominate as the home of the most expensive cities for wealthy individuals to live in, according to a newly published lifestyle report by Julius Baer, in the midst of an inflationary drive sending prices higher worldwide.
Four out of the top five most expensive cities were based in Asia, according to Julius Baer’s ‘Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report 2022’, with London as the lone exception. Shanghai retained the top spot out of the 24 cities surveyed followed by London, Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The report assesses the cost of living for wealthy individuals based on an index involving a basket of 19 goods and services including cars, jewelry, residential property, wine, MBAs and more. The index indicates that purchasing power has been hit this year, with the price of goods and services for the rich having risen 15 percent and 22 percent, respectively, on average.
Lux Price Inflation
According to the report, the pandemic coupled with macroeconomic and supply chain challenges has caused inflation for the wealthy with 75 percent of the goods and 63 percent of the services tracked seeing a price increase. The weighted average price increase was 7.46 percent – a sharp rise from 1.05 percent in the previous edition of the report.
This was best epitomized by Shanghai which saw all but three items register a price increase since last year and topped the ranks in the cost of treadmills, whisky, business flights and degustation dinners.
«Ongoing global uncertainty, prompted by the pandemic, and sustained by rising inflation and increased geopolitical tension, has only sharpened the need for investors to protect their purchasing power and, in the long term, actively plan to preserve their wealth,» said Julius Baer executive board member and head of wealth management solutions Nicolas de Skowronski.
