London is Europe's costliest city
London is the most expensive place to live in Europe
Tuesday, 01, Nov 2005 12:23
London is the most expensive city in Europe to live in, new research reveals.
Residents of the capital pay more for goods and services than any other major population centre in the EU, a report by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein finds.
Paris came in a distant second to rank as the next costliest place to live in Europe, but was just 1.3 per cent more expensive than the overall European average, followed by Frankfurt (0.8 per cent more expensive than average) and Brussels (0.4 per cent cheaper than the average).
In London, by contrast, it cost 5.3 per cent more for a basket of 250 essentials than the average amount in the eurozone.
Madrid was ranked as the cheapest major city that uses the euro, but Warsaw was ranked as the cheapest place to live in the newly-expanded EU - ahead of the Czech capital Prague.
The eight cities compared in this new study - in order of the most expensive to live in - are: London, Paris, Frankfurt, Brussels, Amsterdam, Rome, Madrid, Prague and Warsaw.
Taxes hit Londoners hard - seeing them pay more than double the continental average for a beer, 27 per cent more for spirits, and 70 per cent more for cigarettes.
But for residents of the capital that stay out of the pubs, the picture is rosier. The UK city was found to be the cheapest for deodorant, washing powder, and CDs - with the overall average for household goods 14 per cent lower than in the eurozone.
This summer, London was ranked as the third most expensive city in the world - beaten by Japanese metropolises Tokyo and Osaka.
Paris, the next most expensive city on the Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein survey, was in 12th place.
However, Copenhagen, Oslo and Milan - which were not included in the bank's study - ranked as more expensive than the French capital.