<div>Mumbai has emerged as the world's least expensive city to live and work in, according to a latest real estate analysis.<br /><br />British capital London has overtaken Hong Kong as the most expensive city to rent living and working space, UK real estate major Savills said in its findings based on research in the world's top 12 financial hubs.<br /><br />London's overall real estate costs grew in US dollar terms by an annualised rate of 10.6 per cent in the first six months of the year, making it "the world's most expensive city for companies to locate employees." <br /><br />The annual cost per employee in London was put at $1, 20,568, with Mumbai at the bottom of the table at $29,742.<br /><br />Hong Kong is now at $1,15,717, New York and Paris are in third and fourth place with $1,07,782 and $1,05,550 respectively.<br /><br />Sydney came eighth at $63,630, Shanghai 10th at $43,171 and Rio 11th at $32,179.<br /><br />"Despite its climb in the rankings from fifth to first place since 2008, London is still a way off the live/work accommodation costs record, set by Hong Kong in 2011 at $128,000 a year," Savills said, adding that Hong Kong was still "by far the most expensive city" in which to buy residential property, with prices 40 per cent higher than London although the gap was narrowing.<br /><br />"Comparatively affordable" Rio and Sydney had seen significant increases in live/work costs since 2008 up 85 per cent and 58 per cent respectively but Savills said Rio still looked "highly competitive".</div><div> </div><div><div><strong>Property Slowdown</strong></div><div><span style="line-height: 1.4;">The realty sector slowdown and lack of business confidence have brought Mumbai down to the 10th position among the top 15 global cities, in terms of office rentals, according to a Knight Frank survey report.</span></div><div> </div><div>The 15 cities surveyed were San Francisco, Madrid, New York, Singapore, Sydney, Washington, London, Mumbai, Tokyo, Mexico City, Paris, Hong Kong, Houston and Frankfurt.</div><div> </div><div>Mumbai which ranked sixth among global cities in 2007, slipped to the 10th position in 2014 mainly due to delayed revival of the Indian economy and lack of business confidence.</div><div> </div><div>"Delayed revival of the Indian economy and lack of business confidence took a toll on the Indian office market. This had led to Mumbai slipping from the sixth to the 10th rank in terms of rental ranking of global cities between 2007-14. While rental decline has been the primary reason, a depreciating rupee added fuel to the fire," Knight Frank Chief Economist and Director of Research Samantak Das said in the report.</div><div> </div><div>Office rentals in Mumbai are lowest at Rs 250 per square feet per month, compared to London and New York which stand at Rs 900 square feel and Rs 360 per square feet respectively, the report said.</div><div> </div><div>However, the city's office rentals are expected to grow by nearly 15 per cent over the next five years due to "improved sentiment," the report said.</div><div> </div><div>According to the report, current vacancy levels within the Mumbai office market lies at 23 per cent, which is the highest, as compared to the top 15 global cities.</div><div> </div><div>(PTI)</div></div><div> </div><div> </div>
