If you’ve got millions in the bank and you want to spend them slowly, don’t move to Singapore. The Asian city-state is the most expensive major global city for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) to live in, according to a new report. Singapore tops Julius Baer’s Lifestyle Index, released annually by the Swiss bank. It’s followed by Hong Kong and London. Shanghai has dropped down the rankings from last year, falling from second to fourth place.
Julius Baer says the index analyzes the cost of goods and services representative of “living extremely well” in 25 major global cities. These include the costs of prime real estate, jewelry, whiskey, boarding school, business-class flights, luxury hotel suites, laser-eye surgery, and MBAs. “This provides an overview of the relative cost of maintaining a high-net-worth lifestyle in various major urban centres,” the bank said.
Julius Baer described Singapore as a “highly desirable” place to live and work in, referring to its politics, healthcare, crime rate, public transport, and currency. “The Singaporean government works hard to make the country attractive to global business and wealthy people, and the currency remains strong,” the bank said. This has helped push up prices. Of the 25 cities on Julius Baer’s list, Singapore had the most expensive vehicle prices, second-highest childbirth costs, and third-priciest residential property.
As of June 2023, just under six million people lived in the city-state, which has an aging population. It has a life expectancy of 83 years — 5.5 years higher than that of the US — and a low fertility rate of less than 1.0. Singapore has the fourth-highest number of millionaires in the world, according to a ranking of cities by investment-migration consultancy Henley & Partners that used data from December 2023. Singapore had nearly 250,000 millionaires as well as more than 300 people worth at least $100 million, per the report, which calculated that the city’s millionaire population had grown by 64% in a decade.
Julius Baer listed Hong Kong as the second-most expensive city for HNWIs of the 25 on the list, with the second-highest residential property costs. Hong Kong, which had 7.4 million residents as of its 2021 census, has nearly 150,000 millionaire residents, according to data from Henley & Partners.
Julius Baer said that, across the globe, the greatest price increases between 2023 and 2024 were for premium consumer items like fashion and jewelry, “where pricing has been rising steeply for several years.” This is due to rising material, energy, and labor costs as well as strong currencies in Europe, where many luxury houses are based. Every European city included in the ranking — Barcelona, Frankfurt, London, Milan, Monaco, Paris, and Zurich — moved up the list this year. Zurich, described by Julius Baer as “this year’s runaway star performer,” shot up eight places in the ranking to become the sixth most expensive city for HNWIs on its list, which the bank attributed to the strength of the Swiss franc.
