Despite the flurry of price increases last year, Malaysia remains one of the cheapest places in the world to live in.
In the latest cost-of-living survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Kuala Lumpur was ranked 95th among 128 cities in the world, up three places from the year before.
The most expensive city in the world was Oslo in Norway, knocking Tokyo from the perch for the first time in 14 years.
In that Scandinavian city, the price of a compact disc is US$24.07 (RM90). For that price, you can purchase two CDs in Kuala Lumpur.
Perhaps the starkest difference between living in Oslo and living in Kuala Lumpur is in the cost of owning a vehicle.
It costs a Norwegian US$57,230 to buy a family sedan, US$443 to register the vehicle, US$2,619 for insurance and US$1.98 for a litre of unleaded petrol.
Cont....O$LO: No.1 KL: No.95
KL one of the world's cheapest cities...The NST
I actually have considered Malaysia as a retirement destination. In addition to pricing, it is in the tropics (not everyone's cup of tea, but definitely mine), and has relatively reasonable requirements for people seeking a resident visa.
ReplyDeleteThe Norweigans can keep Oslo. I'm not knocking the people or the country per se - just their weather. brrrr...
Hmm....the cheapest items compared with Oslo are tobacco and domestic help. What kind of conclusions can be drawn from that? ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm just jealous because Japan is one of the most expensive countries to live in.
I'm boring - i only look for places with the greatest rivers/seas to kayak!
ReplyDeleteWould they do such a list? ;)
incidentally, Sarawak is known as the "Land of Rivers!" and i am where i m supposed to be! kekeke
Pandabonium, Malaysia as a retirement destination? Not a bad idea. We've got great outdoors and cheap domestic help (as MM pointed out from the survey) and loads of other pluses which I'm sure you would have checked out.
ReplyDeleteMM, you needn't be (jealous). You could move over to Malaysia too. haha.....
FH2o, for one who loves kayaking, you are at the right spot - no need to relocate to KL (we don't have rivers with crocs nor prawns and our rivers are smelly I was told). haha....
No way? Malaysia's the cheapest place to live? Wow ...
ReplyDeletethey probably forgotten to include the per capita earning for each currencies into account :)
ReplyDeleteeverything else are just relative figures
hehehe...
Hi louyau, yep, that's what the stats say but I doubt we'd be able to get that pair of cool Nike at the price you paid in London. haha..
ReplyDeleteJellyfish, I think they've factored in the per capita income and they're probably comparing apple to apple. But if you're talking about exchange rate than Malaysia would be cheap for most foreigners. Also, with the constant hike in price of petrol (and a possible one for utilities) in Malaysia, cost of living would be on the rise too.
If given a chance to retire, I will retire at home in Singapore. Cost of living is only one of the factor I would consider.
ReplyDeleteI would think of:
security.. the place should have low crime rate
equality.. I don't want to be second class citizen
convenience.. the place should have all the consideration for elderly.
Being in Oslo, although expensive, it has good medical care and welfare for the elderly, thus, still can consider.
Hi Robin, I totally agree with you about security and equality. The convenience part, is Sgp at this level already? For instance?
ReplyDeleteSecurity -- hmmm.. every few block of flat has one police post. and traffic police is at every expressway everyday..
ReplyDeleteEquality.. regardless of race language and religion, no special treatment, no harrassment..
Convenience.. which city can allow you to walk to your nearest 24 hours shop at 3am. you can buy everything there and will not get rob. Even some petrol place have a supermarket (NTUC) which operates 24 hours.
The biggest test is buying ice at 1am for your wine..
Dear Robin, Sgp may have more policemen per sq mile but it's really not that bad here. My friends and I sometimes go out for supper very late at night or we finish our karaoke sessions past midnight and we all take different routes home. I also go to the bank at night becoz there's less traffic and no queue. Your concern may be valid - I probably should cut down putting myself at risk.
ReplyDeleteAs for convenience, we could do the same here. I could just drive (too far to walk) to 7-Eleven at 3am and not get robbed. Our petrol stations also stock up on stuff but probably not supermarket standard. In fact, some of our gas stations also have fastfood joints next to them. I could also buy ice at 1am for my wine if need be. So you see it's really not that bad here afterall.
However, you win hands-down on equality.
Thanks for sharing, Robin.