Story Behind Jaypee’s Failure

Shri. Jaiprakash Gaur, the founder of Jaypee Group, had a single-minded focus after graduating from IIT Roorkee with a diploma in civil engineering. He decided to contribute to nation-building by branching off as a civil contractor in 1958 and founded Jaypee Group. The Group’s business interests include engineering and construction, cement, power, real estate, expressways, fertilizer, hospitality, healthcare, sports, and information technology. This article covers the story behind Jaypee’s failure. How did Jaypee start, what all the good things it did, what exactly went wrong, and what is the future now? One thing is for sure, if everything would have gone well, Jaypee would have completely changed the situation in Noida. It could have become the DLF of Noida. But could not. More than 20000 buyers are still struggling to get the homes of their dreams. Let us look at the story behind the making of Jaypee.

Work done by Jaypee:

Jaypee Infratech was founded in 2007 and it is the part of the Jaypee Group. So, let’s look at some of the successful works done by Jaypee Infratech.

1. Yamuna Expressway project:

The Group entered into the construction of expressways with a 165 km access controlled 6 lane super expressway along the Yamuna River connecting Greater Noida and Agra. You would know how well-developed the Yamuna expressway is if you have been to it. It has become a big boon for Noida. Jaypee has also built the Zirakpur-Parwanoo Himalayan Expressway. 

2. Jaypee’s Hotels and Resorts:

In New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, the hospitality division of the Group owns and manages five hotels. 

3. Jaypee’s Hospital:

The Jaypee Hospital is well-developed and offers excellent health facilities. The hospital is now commissioning 525 beds in the first phase of its intended 1200-bedded tertiary care multi-specialty complex.

4. Jaypee’s F1 Sports:

The Group hosted the inaugural Formula One Grand Prix of India on October 30, 2011. The track is anticipated to hold more top-tier international racing competitions in addition to F1. Though this was unsuccessful as F1 races did not succeed in India. 

5. Jaypee’s Real Estate:

The first real estate project of the group, Jaypee Greens Greater Noida, covers 452 acres. This distinguished municipality includes an 18-hole Greg Norman golf course, upscale homes, shopping centers, etc. 

India’s First Wish Town, a premier township featuring an 18 + 9 Hole golf course, world-class residences, commercial developments, numerous entertainment amenities, and acres of greenery, was Jaypee Greens’ second project when it was unveiled in Noida in November 2007. The group then started construction on Jaypee Greens Sports City and Jaypee Greens Wish Town Agra, two townships along the Yamuna Expressway and Jewar International Airport, which is scheduled to open soon, and is a 20-minute drive from the city center. 

But destiny was against Jaypee’s prosperity, and Jaypee’s fantasy township became a failure. So let’s talk about this township’s swindling and how many house buyers lost their dream homes.

Jaypee’s Failure in Real Estate:

Who doesn’t want to be the owner of their own home? All of us do. Not just any house, either. A perfect home must be spacious, well-connected to the rest of the city, have a room with a view, and have the best amenities. However, it has been more than 12 years since thousands of Jaypee Infratech Limited (JIL) home buyers in Noida were victims of the mother of all real estate failures in India. The long-drawn legal battles are ongoing, leaving more than 20,000 Jaypee home seekers running from pillar to post and many giving up.

Jaypee got the land of the wish town in return for building the Noida expressway for Rs 400 crores. The company launched 32000 flats, still, 70% of apartments are in the under-construction stage. This project did not show any signs of readiness for the completion date. Around 90% of buyers made their payment, but it was still claimed that progress has been made on this project, although there was nothing to show for it.

A total of 18,767 people paid a total of Rs.8,676 crores to the company. 1410 people received possession worth 528 crores with no registrations. 413 people canceled their booking and their refund of Rs 64 crores is still pending.

Reasons for the failure:

 The reason behind the Real estate failure of Jaypee are:

  1. Jaypee group took the money that buyers had paid for homes and invested it in other projects.
  2. The company invested the money in other businesses.
  3. The government changed at that time.

 Future of Jaypee’s Failure:

After a super-lengthy resolution process, Mumbai-based Suraksha realty group got the approval of financial creditors and home buyers to take over the company in June 2021. Furthermore, in its offer, Suraksha promised to deliver all Jaiprakash Associates’ pending housing units within 42 months. It has offered to pay Rs 125 crore upfront and infuse Rs 3,000 crore within 90 days for completing the stalled projects. It will also put Rs 300 crore receivable from Jaiprakash Associates for completing the pending housing unit. Since Jaypee was an extraordinary case, the finalization of the bids is pending before NCLT for more than 17 months for approval. After the approval, the 20,000 home buyers who have been waiting for their units in various housing projects of Jaypee can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Rates to take a step down alongside Noida expressway

In the NCR region, that is subtly attached to the capital region of India, Delhi there extends two expressways that are built to let the residents enjoy the great community and work from far off places while travelling through these roads. The eastern region has been accurately acquired by the 22km long through Noida and Greater Noida. The other one runs for 18km in the regions of Dwarka.

All these expressways are developed to join the regions of Delhi NCR in a better way providing the areas extending adjacent to them to the real estate developers to create more and more property in Noida and in Dwarka.

These lands were also supposed to be given to the developers who want to build commercial spaces and give away office for rent in Noida, Greater Noida, Dwarka, and Gurugram. This, however, made both the regions a large hub for the working class people who migrated here from all over the country. This gave a major boost to all the realty developers to build more and more residential complexes.

As soon as the areas were changing into residential complexes, the southern areas started to experience water and sewage problems. Developers were unable to provide their residents with the daily needs. However, the eastern region thoroughly enjoyed the regular facilities of water and sewage but could not gather proper funds. These developers tracked the funds from the farmers and this became a major reason to manage all the funds and thus fulfil the increasing demands of people. Also, after the demonetization process, those launched flats which were left in the middle of the construction period were unable to be delivered on the expected date of delivery. One Unitech project called Grande, located in Greater Noida was launched in 2007 and even after 10 years, it could not be completed due to inappropriate funds. Now as the government orders all the realty developers to increase the supply, these well-built flats would be sold at much lesser prices given its history of in accomplishment. These flats are built along with the Yamuna Expressway and were targeted towards those who wanted to have the luxury as they were built across an 18 hole golf course.

Due to these reasons and the post demonetisation effect where people just stopped thinking of following their dreams and the wish to buy a house vanished all of a sudden, lowering the rates seemed to be the only option. These low rates would fill the empty flats and would decrease the number of new flats that were to be constructed to meet the demands after the Union Budget of 2017.

Indian Government Certifies Vadra’s Real Estate Deals Clean

India Government Labels Vadra as "Corruption Free."

India Government Labels Vadra as “Corruption Free.”

Government of India ruled out all sorts of enquiries into the allegations against and leading real estate developer firm DLF Ltd. Robert Vadra, son in law of Sonia Gandhi, Congress president and the most powerful politician of India. Continue reading

Indian developers will present properties to NRI investors at Doha exhibition.

Indian developers are all geared up to offer NRI investors a wide choice of properties across India at an exhibition which is going to start on 16th March 2012.

It is the 20th India Property Exhibition in Doha on Friday which will showcase more than 100 projects spread across New Delhi, the National Capital Region, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Goa, Hyderabad and several other cities.

The $12 billion realty market in India is on a high growth curve, because of the fast growing economy, increased participation of global players in the Indian market and new technological innovations.

According to organisers – Indus Fairs and Events (India) and Apex Business Solutions, Doha – the investment portfolio includes apartments, independent houses, bungalows, luxury villas, farmhouses, commercial properties, beach resorts and plots.

Realty Big Players Attracted Towards Small Cities for Expansion

NEW DELHI: Growing demand for homes in smaller cities of the country is attracting real estate biggies. Cities like Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Indore, Jaipur, Lucknow , Nagpur, Surat , Vadodara and Visakhapatnam are estimated to add 354 million sq ft of residential development in the coming 03 years. According to a research, large builders like DLF , Unitech , Parsvnath , Omaxe , Ansals and Emaar MGF have already diversified into these cities. These cities today show huge potential for growth. These cities are attracting the big developers because of their considerable price stability and growth prospects. With economic activity picking up in these cities, there is a growing migration from smaller areas, which has created a shift towards an apartment culture. This shift will foster volumes for larger developers in the future.

Looking at this new demand, banks and financial institutions are also looking towards these cities to bridge the financial saturation gap.The growth prospects in the smaller cities are fascinating huge developers with multi-city existance.

Home Loan Rates Increases Tends to Increase Home Prices

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: A 25 basis point rise in key interest rates by the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday is likely to further lower home sales across the country, some builders and bankers said in the midst of increase in bank rates. Customers will now have to reconsider the size and locations of houses they wish to purchase and many buyers are expected to put off their purchases altogether till home prices come down and rates stabilise. This is certainly bad news for existing home loan consumers as banks will certainly increase home loan rates.

Purchasing capacity had already gone down visibly during the last tranche of interest rate hikes, and we will see a further reduction in buyer interest. Owing to the last 10 rate hikes by RBI, EMIs for housing loans have risen 25 percent to INR980 per INR 1 lakh of borrowing, and consequently loan eligibility for homebuyers has declined by 20percent. Anil Kothuri, head of retail lending business at Edelweiss Group says, “Housing finance companies have no wriggle room available.” For new home loan seekers, this will be big warning, not just because of the rate hike but also because of the frequency of the rate hike by RBI. “The person who is looking to purchase a home has the option, of buying or not buying. Existing home loan customers are stuck. However, of the opinion of Renu Sud Karnad, Managing Director of HDFC, is that this quarter percentage hike will not impact housing demand and loan off-take.

Brokers Hunt for Jobs as Slump Hits Realty Sales

NEW DELHI | BANGALORE: Broker in Bangalore bylane has just opened a stationery shop. He has named it ‘Smart Shop’, borrowing the name from the realty brokerage firm that he ran from the same premises until about two months ago. He switched to retail after his property business hit a rough patch following a slump in home sales. About 03-quarters of his revenues came from sale of apartments, the remaining from renting.

“With home sales dropping, it doesn’t make business sense anymore,” he says. It’s the same story in other big cities. In Mumbai, a mid-size broker has set up a small fast food joint to make ends meet. In Nagpur, a real estater has quit the real estate business and set up an ice-cream parlour. Their worries are not unfounded. While the large and established players in the property business have managed to stay, even during the slump, thousands of smaller players like brokers and agents are being forced to look for other jobs.

It also hit lakhs of people employed with such small outfits – each of which hires 5-15 people.With many brokers closing shops or reducing size, these people are out in the market, looking for jobs in sectors such as retail, banking, insurance and call centres. The real estate industry employs about 10 lakh people across the country, the majority in the unorganised sector.

In the first quarter of 2011, home sales dropped 17 per cent in Mumbai, 14 percent in Bangalore and 15 percent in Hyderabad. According to consultant Jones Lang La-Salle, unsold residential units in projects that are complete or are nearing completion in 6-12 months in Mumbai and Delhi-NCR are as high as 25 percent and 16 percent, respectively. In other big cities, including Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata, the numbers range between 12 percent and 19 percent. Sales in tier-II and tier-III cities are steady, though there is some panic due to the increase in interest rates, which have climbed to about 11 percent from 8.25 percent a year ago.

“For smaller brokers, the impact of the current market factors is a lot more compared to the larger brokers,” says the president of the National Association of Realtors India . “Even for our members – who are fairly well-off – business is down 40 percent compared to 2009-10. But the smaller guys are in trouble and are setting up businesses that move on a daily basis. Many I know have asked their employees to look out” Ravindra Bramhe, chairman of the Maharashtra Property Brokers’ Association, says.

For whatever business is left in the market, there are hundreds of agents in queue. For instance, there are pockets on the Noida Expressway, near large projects, where real estate brokers can be seen sitting inside small tents, under the sweltering sun, waiting for business. Those who can’t afford to set up these tents can be seen on the roadside, running after every car that passes by, with brochures and flyers of projects in hand. Industry refers to them as the broker mandi. “All my friends and colleagues are now looking outside real estate before things get worse,” says Chaudhary. Many have returned to the insurance industry and others have found jobs with small call centres. A few have found employment with retail stores.

Real estate prices fly in Delhi, NCR

NEW DELHI: Real estate prices in some areas of the NCR glided high by 20 to 27%  in the first quarter of the current financial year as compared to the subsequent period of 2010-1. “Property prices for Delhi have seen boom if we compare per square feet prices of Q1-11 over Q1-10. Certain key areas like Sarita Vihar and Rohini have seen 27% and 20% growth respectivly in prices compared to prices over Q1-10”.

According to a report, the upward price sentiment would continue as the prices on average are hiking up by 15%. The South Delhi locality Sarita Vihar’s PSF prices rise by 27.60% at INR 8,110 as compared to Inr6,356 in the period of 2010-11, while north Delhi-based Rohini’s PSF prices increased by 25%. This is followed by Patparganj at a PSF price appreciation of 21.68%. Other localities like southwest Delhi-based Dwarka sub city’s PSF price also increased by 28 % in sector-11 and sector-2.

Realty prices in suburban NCR like Noida and Gurgaon also increased because of metro rail services came into operation. Prices per square feet in sector 110 and sector 93 of Noida also moved up by 16 %  and 11 % respectively,  as compared to prices in the corresponding period of last financial year. “Gurgaon witnessed an upgoing trend in property prices. Properties located on the Sohna Road and DLF City phase IV have seen the highest growth in prices by 46 % and 42 %, respectively, in Q1-11 over Q1-10”.

 

Wealthy and Powerful Buyers of CWG Flats Paying Heavy Interest.

NEW DELHI: The group of wealthy and powerful people consisting of politicians, film stars, lawyers, bureaucrats, businessmen and top executives of multinational companies is fighting to gain custody of apartments in the heart of Delhi for some months now and there is no sign that a outcome is near. “We literally financed this project for the CWG, and now we are stuck, I put in all my hard earned money to buy a house here.”  said Dhiraj Mathur , one of the 280 people who purchased apartments in the Commonwealth Games village complex and an executive director at Pricewaterhouse Coopers.  These high-end apartments which were built to house the athletes of 2010 games, were sold for between INR2 crore and INR6 crore. But buyers were denied occupancy after charge of bribes in the Games surfaced.

“I used my life’s earnings to buy two apartments in the village as I did not have any property in Delhi”, who paid close to INR6 crore, said former cricketer and parliamentarian Navjot Singh Sidhu “. Had I invested this money elsewhere, I could have got a good return by now,” he added. About 280 buyers – including people like YC Deveshwar of ITC , danseuse Shovana Narayan, lawyer Rajiv Luthra, former finance secretary Ashok Jha and Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati – paid close to INR 1,500 crore for these flats.

Many of the buyers had taken bank loans for the property and have been paying heavy interest for the past 03 years. Now, with the central bank having revised interest rates nine times in the past one year, their costs are mountaining. “I have been paying an average EMI (equated monthly installment) of about Rs 2 lakh for the past three years since I bought the flat. Right now, most of the EMI amount is going towards interest payment,” said an employee of IFC, New Delhi. He had bought a four-bedroom flat for about INR3 crore and had taken a loan of INR 2.25 crore from Citibank. In the last few months, his interest rate has gone up from the original 9.1 percent to 12.5 percent, increasing the interest factor in his EMIs by at least 30 percent. The apartments lie vacant, with no one to look after, with broken doors and windows that let in dogs and birds. They are in a state of disorder since the end of the games in October last year

Multi National Brands Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco May Soon Open Stores in India

NEW DELHI: Multinational retailers namely Walmart , Carrefour and Tesco may soon be allowed to open stores in India subject to inflexible investment norms, sourcing conditions, and cap on number of outlets in large cities. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, or Dipp, is likely to move a proposal seeking cabinet’s consent for 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail subject to an investment of at least USD 100 mn.

A draft structure has been prepared keeping sufficient safeguards to protect small shopkeepers, and to ensure that FDI actually helps in development of back-end infrastructure. The department has circulated a draft structure to a committee of secretaries, which will fine-tune it before a final cabinet note is moved. Multinational retailers will have to file a statement of account with the RBI and Foreign Investment Promotion Board showing the investment in back-end functions.

Proposals address states’ concerns “The government is very clear that FDI in multi-brand retail should create an employment on big scale and bring quality investment into the country resulting to development of back-end infrastructure,” the official said. For easier monitoring, the government will also allow back-end infrastructure to be executed through a dedicated unit. Multi-brand retail stores would be required to source at least 30 percent of their products, including food items, from small and medium enterprises, according to the draft structure.

Income Tax Department Procured Real Estate worth Rs 2,500 crore in a Fiscal

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department became one of the largest purchasers of real estate properties last year as it embarked on a mega expansion fling to spread its establishment for enhancing taxpayer services in the country.

The department, which has recently started a special drive to check frequency of black money in the country’s real estate sector, has acquired high-worth properties worth about 2,500 crore in more than 20 cities in the last year alone.

The largest possession by the department has been at the cost of more than 2,000 crore for the purchase of office space in the civic centre near the national capital’s marketing hub, Connaught Place. The civic centre is the tallest building in Delhi. The department has likewise purchased 56 staff quarters worth more than 89 crore at the pricey Bandra-Kurla complex in Mumbai.

“All the purchases have been done in order to inflate taxpayer facilities and to provide better living and working facilities for the department staff. No doubt the department’s purchasing power has been the largest in the last financial year.”  The department, with these possessions in the real estate sector has probably become the largest government department to acquire and create real estate in the country, the Income Tax commissioner said.

The shopping bucket of the department, has other high-profile acquires and possessions like creation of a training centre and hostel facilities for new comers of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) at their alma mater – National Academy of Direct
Taxes (NADT) in Nagpur at the cost of Rupees100 crore.

In Chandigarh, the I-T department has purchased 5,000 acres of land for office space at the cost of more than Rupees 33 crore, a centralized air conditioned I-T office at Udaipur at the cost of more than Rupees 16 crore, acquisition of land for creation of office building for the department in Mumbai at about Rupees 23 crore and land measuring more than 9,500 sq m at Jamnagar, Gujarat for office building at  Rupees 8 crore.

Another set includes office building at Siliguri for 5.5 crore and a separate creation of 49 residential sectors and guest houses at Siliguri in excess of 10 crore. One more big acquirement by the department has been made at Muzzafarpur in Bihar for building staff quarters at the cost of more than 21 crore.

The department has also been sustained by the success of direct taxes (income tax) collection which was about 4.50 lakh crore in the financial year 2010-11. Despite the department paying 72,000 crore in refunds, the stout direct tax collection is the highest in any financial year.

2008 DDA Scheme Flats: Hundreds lie Vacant at Vasant Kunj Without Water,Maint & Power Supply

NEW DELHI: One of the pushiest area of South Delhi Vasant Kunj, take a stroll into Sector E and you get a chill down your spine. Rows and rows of vacant flats give a stare at you. It’s weird, haunting and unsettling. But this ghost township is part of the greedy DDA’s prestigious 2008 housing scheme, for which millions of Delhiites had put their luck and money at stake.

It’s a sprawling area housing nearly 800 DDA flats, but it’s lonely and isolated out there. Only 50 families are still hanging on to what they once thought was their dream home. So here’s comes a note of caution. If you have bagged an allotment in the 2010 lucky draw at Vasant Kunj, you could also be a victim of DDA’s disregard. Astonishingly, the agency has failed to provide even the basic amenities of water and electricity even 3 years after the allotment of the flats.

One of the residents, Harish Chand, is still battling it out in his infirm flat at Pocket 2 in Sector E. He has nobody next door, because most allottees have never turned up to live there. But most of these flats have been robed,  electric wires hang dangerously and meters have all been stolen. Burglars have a field day in this area and dirt spills over from open drains. Taps run dry and Harish Chand has no option but to buy drinking water. The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has made it clear; it does not have water to provide. “When we complained to DDA about lack of water, we were directly told that DJB cannot supply water. We have been surviving on water from tankers and tube wells. We are barely surviving as just 50-odd families live here. But we still have to
buy drinking water. Pipelines are broken, there’s no impression of maintenance, DDA had just refused to act on it,” said Harish Chand. His suffering began much earlier. Harish and many others had to wait till April 2010 to take possession after a scam hit the DDA housing scheme in 2008.

Manoj Jain, who lives in Punjabi Bagh in his parental house, said that someone was illegally tapping into his meter and stealing power. “I keep coming back to check my flat, the lock outside my flat has been broken and my electricity meter has been tampered. I realized this when I got an overblown power bill this month,” said Jain. There is also no approach road leading to these flats. “I moved into my flat a month back and there are trucks parked there which creates a security threat,” said Rajesh Kayala.

Now, DDA is claiming that construction of the approach road will start in a month’s time. “The tenders have been proposed also floating tenders to provide RO water to the flats. We are now sending water tankers to the area,” said a DDA official.

 

Income Tax Department to Probe Suspected Real Estate Deals.

The Income Tax department is looking into all the alleged deals of real estate to check the contribution of black money and tax dodging of such dealings in the last few years. The process starts in New Delhi and eventually would move to other metros.
“Analysis of the Property deals will start with New Delhi and appropriate actions would be taken as required”, Sudhir Chandra, Chairman CBDT said. In the past few years after IT department had received complaints about the black money involvment, IT department has raided many real estate developers, including the major ones.
IT officials says that they had uncovered lot of black money from most of the builders. A new process is being levied which would keep an eye on sources of funding for developers projects which includes individuals as well as property dealers.
Approx 40-60 percent of the cash componenet is unaccounted on papers. This helps builders to avaoid tax on cash  incomes. The deaprtment is focusing very closely more on dealers rather than small ones. The amount of assets detained by the IT department had been more than doubled in the last four years, while the number of raids had came down. IT department searched 529 groups in 2006-07. The number of searches dropped to 454 in 2007-08, 429 in 2008-09 and 409 in 2009-10.

Formula One racing event to be held in Sports City, Greater Noida

India now plans for its first Formula One Grand Prix motor race. Mr. Jaiprakash Gaur, an Indian construction billionaire and sports enthusiast is the one driving force due to whom this has become possible.

Mr. Gaur is the founder and executive chairman of the Jaypee Group. Jaypee is an industrial and construction conglomerate. Presently, Jaypee is developing a “sports city” at Noida. This city will be a satellite town located at the eastern outskirts of New Delhi.

Since he is a sports person too, he has provided a Greg Norman golf course and a 100,000-seat cricket stadium, along with the luxurious apartments in his Jaypee Greens Sports City. Also, this motor racing will be conducted in this stadium.

Joint Venture Among Tata Housing & Tata Realty

Joint venture
April 26, 2010

The two companies Tata Realty and Tata Housing belonging to Tata Sons Ltd. are competing with each other which are doing nothing but hindering Tata Sons on a whole.  Therefore, Tata Sons is asking them to avoid this competition.

Tata Housing Development Co. Ltd was established so as to develop and sell primarily residential projects whereas Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd was set up to function as a fund and develop infrastructure projects. They both are 100 percent subsidiaries of the group.

Some officials stated that the problem arose two years ago when Tata Realty started looking for real estate projects which directly overlap Tata Housing’s business interests.

This competition is on its peak since both of them now plan residential projects in cities such as Pune and New Delhi.

Now, Tata Realty is been told that it has two options; either develop its ongoing and future residential projects as joint ventures with Tata Housing or not pursue housing projects at all.

Mr. Brotin Banerjee, managing director and chief executive officer of Tata Housing maintained a silence when asked if the two groups had competition amongst them and said that just some overlaps were there and added that the companies shared the same chairman, R.K. Krishnakumar.

Slump in retail rentals

As per CBRE, New Delhi witnessed a decline in retail rentals of 25% and ranked 69th in rentals among the list of major cities across the world during the Q1 of this year.

Demand for retail space has decreased in most markets across the world as consumers cut back on spending and unemployment continues to rise in many countries. New Delhi in India saw a 25% decline in last 6 months.

Delhi is the most expensive city

The national capital has become the most expensive city in the country for expatriates. Comparing with other metro cities, New Delhi is ahead of Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.
However, all Indian cities have witnessed a decline in their rankings in terms of cost of living this year with New Delhi falling to the 65th position from 55th place in last year’s survey, in the global list of 143 cities.
Further, Bangalore has dropped to 133rd rank from the 118th rank in last year’s survey, while Chennai is the cheapest Indian city at 135th rank falling from 117th position last year.
Mercer’s survey covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. It is a comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine cost of living allowances for their expatriate employees.
Overall, a significant reshuffle of cities can be observed in this year’s ranking, mainly due to considerable currency fluctuations.