May 31, 2010

Each year Mercer conduct a study to find the top 50 best cities on the planet for their Quality of Living survey.

Just like recent years, it seems New Zealand, and Australasia in general, are punching above their weight when it comes to representation on the list.

For this years survey, like last years, New Zealand again featured in both Top 5 lists.

They compile two separate lists, one is the Top 50 based on Quality of Living and the other, Top 50 based on Eco-city Ranking.

Mercer's 2010 Quality of Living survey highlights - Global

In slightly related news, Sydney Australia has zoomed past London, not just for a garage at Bondi Beach, but as a median cost of a house, its now more expensive than London!

According to the report in yesterdays Sunday Tele;

Residex figures show the median cost of a Sydney house is $651,500 – almost $190,000 ahead of London, where the median price for a two- to three-bedroom house is $462,000.

When trying to fathom why, the newspaper quotes John Lindeman, head of research for Residex as saying;

It’s quite incredible that houses are cheaper in those cities than in Sydney. But it’s caused by the demand for Sydney houses, which keeps outpacing the supply – and that’s not going to change any time soon.

Where to from here?