The Brexit continues to affect London with the city now losing its ranking as the world’s most expensive place to live and work, the Wall Street Journal noted. And while this may be good news for those living in the city, Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and the subsequent fall of the sterling continues to impact the country.
Recent research from Savills on global cities shows that London fell two spots and is now the third most expensive city to live and work in. The property broker found that New York is in the top spot with Hong Kong being the second most expensive city to live. Tokyo finished one place behind London on the list.
The research, which focuses on accommodation costs for employees in financial-services and creative industries, examines how much money is required to live in rented housing and work in an office for one year. The reason Savills uses these two industries is that the company believes they are major drivers of the economies of global cities.
For London, the fall ends a two and a half year run of being the world’s most expensive city to live and work. Costs declined in July as the sterling continued losing ground on the dollar and it was noted that the U.K. real estate markets continue to cool. These trends had been taking place for a while, but both accelerated once the Brexit became official in June.
“Brexit has made London more competitive, at least in terms of cost,” Yolande Barnes, head of world research at Savills, explained to the newspaper. “Of course, other factors might mean it won’t be.”
Real estate prices in New York have been increasing ever so slightly while commercial real estate prices in London have been falling. In addition to this, house prices in some of the London’s most expensive neighborhoods have been slumping for more than 12 months now.
