Karachi; the Least expensive city in the world

[Khushal Khan Khattak]

World's Most and Least Expensive Cities

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Think New York is pricey? Try Luanda.


It would cost you roughly $4,000 a month to get a luxury 2-bedroom apartment in the Big Apple, but it runs a staggering $7,000 a month in Angola’s capital of Luanda, according to a just-released survey of the world’s most expensive and least expensive cities.



The study is an annual exercise by Mercer, a national benefit consulting firm, aimed at helping companies figure out how much to pay people who must relocate for work. To figure out the most and least costly cities, the consulting firm looked at the price of more than 200 items, including rent, transportation and the cost of a burger from a fast-food joint.




What makes Luanda so costly, besides the rent? The fast-food meal that runs $5.95 in New York is going to set you back a whopping $17.50 in Luanda. Although, to be honest, you can’t get a burger there. You’ll have to settle for a club sandwich and soda. The city doesn’t have a McDonalds. (No wonder Luanda didn’t make the top 50 in Mercer’s sister survey about the cities that offer the best quality of living.)




Want to grab a CD and listen to a little music? That’s $29.15 in Luanda vs. $15.21 in New York. An issue of an international newspaper? That’s $4.93 in Luanda compared with $2.50 in New York.



The world’s cheapest city? Karachi, Pakistan, where your apartment runs a modest $353.58 per month.




The rest of top 10 most costly cities, according to Mercer:

2. Tokyo, Japan*

3. Ndjamena, Chad

4. Moscow, Russia

5. Geneva, Switzerland*

6. Osaka, Japan

7. Libreville, Gabon

8. Zurich, Switzerland*

9. Hong Kong, China

10. Copenhagen, Denmark*



Notably, “expensive” doesn’t necessarily translate to “livable.” Only four of the most expensive cities also ranked within the top 50 for quality of living, according to Mercer. Those four were Tokyo, Geneva, Zurich and Copenhagen.



What are the world’s least expensive cities, besides #1 ranked Karachi?:

2. Managua, Nicaragua

3. Islamabad, Pakistan

4. La Paz, Bolivia

5. Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan

6. Bishkek, Kyrgyztan

7. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

8. Calcutta, India

9. Tegucigalpa, Honduras

10. Windhoek, Namibia



The key to the cheapest cities? Mainly low rent and the fact that Mercer apparently didn’t factor in the security requirements for going to some dicey areas.



Notably, while New York is the most costly city in the U.S., it ranks a paltry 27th on the list of the most costly cities in the world. The other most costly cities in the U.S., in order, are Los Angeles; White Plains, NY; Chicago; San Francisco; Miami; Honolulu; Washington, D.C.; Boston; Houston; Dallas; Atlanta; Morristown, NJ; Seattle; Minneapolis; Celveland; Detroit; St. Louis; Pittsburg; Portland; and, finally, Winston Salem, NC, where you can rent a luxury 2-bedroom apartment for a paltry $450 per month and get a fast-food meal for just $3.50.


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Most and Least Expensive Cities in the World - CBS MoneyWatch.com
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[Levanaye Zalmaye]

lol this is so bizarre:

Around one-third of Angolans live in Luanda, 57% of whom live in poverty. Living conditions in Luanda are extremely poor, with essential services such as safe drinking water still in short supply. Luanda is the world's most expensive city for overseas Americans.

Wiki

Aseer Jaan, they don't give you tickets, they make you give them bribes. To be honest, Karachi is a good place to live as long as you live within DHA or Clifton. Of course there's still crime in those areas but other more densely populated areas of the city, such as Gulshan-Iqbal, Gilistan-e-Jauhar, Orangi Town, Korangi, Bandar Road, Lyari, Bin Qasim Town, Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, etc, are places that you will want to avoid. Those places are political and sectarian dens where criminal gangs hide with hit-men, drug dealers, political assassins and Taliban representatives. In some of the most unsafe places, you can live for as low as Rs. 2,000 per month.

[Admin Khan]

lol this is so bizarre:

Wiki

Aseer Jaan, they don't give you tickets, they make you give them bribes. To be honest, Karachi is a good place to live as long as you live within DHA or Clifton. Of course there's still crime in those areas but other more densely populated areas of the city, such as Gulshan-Iqbal, Gilistan-e-Jauhar, Orangi Town, Korangi, Bandar Road, Lyari, Bin Qasim Town, Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, etc, are places that you will want to avoid. Those places are political and sectarian dens where criminal gangs hide with hit-men, drug dealers, political assassins and Taliban representatives. In some of the most unsafe places, you can live for as low as Rs. 2,000 per month.

Do you think an average citizen can afford living in DHA?

[Millatpal Noorzai]

I traveled to a poor African country a couple of months ago and found out that their metropolitan city was way more expensive than New York City.Hotel rent,food and taxi fares were sky high, not to forget entertainment,,,had to buy one computer made black market Indian Music CD for $30 which is sold for $5 in NYC.

[Master Khan]

Karachi is full of Crime, killings, gangs and MQM lol as if someone wants to live in a s***hole like Karachi

[Levanaye Zalmaye]

Do you think an average citizen can afford living in DHA?

There was plenty of upward social mobility during the Musharraf (dollar influx) days. But the average citizen of today can only dream about the "luxury" of shifting to the other side of the bridge.

[Khushal Khan Khattak]

Karachi is a good city. But its really filthy and full of corruption. The traffic officer gives you tickets just because they had a bad day. Its really a disaster there.

I think Levanay says it better, he says:

they don't give you tickets, they make you give them bribes. To be honest, Karachi is a good place to live as long as you live within DHA or Clifton. Of course there's still crime in those areas but other more densely populated areas of the city, such as Gulshan-Iqbal, Gilistan-e-Jauhar, Orangi Town, Korangi, Bandar Road, Lyari, Bin Qasim Town, Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, etc, are places that you will want to avoid.

Basically, Karachi is like any major city of the US in terms of crime. There is a lot of crime in downtown and poor areas whereas as better off suburbia and uptown areas are free of crime.

Do you think an average citizen can afford living in DHA?

Maybe, the article was about an average Westerner with a pay of the same standard, but, I guess Admin, you would be among the upper Middle class there and better off, he he he.

[muhsina]

World's Most and Least Expensive Cities

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Karachi is no doubt one of the cheapest cities in the world because human blood is least expensive there. To keep the market value of the human blood stable ,there are target killing of innocent people on daily basis.

[Khushal Khan Khattak]

Karachi is no doubt one of the cheapest cities in the world because human blood is least expensive there. To keep the market value of the human blood stable ,there are target killing of innocent people on daily basis.

Yes! that Indian RAW is one nasty demon!!! most of the heinous activities there are sponsored by RAW the Indian Intelligence Agency. The Karachi Police have shown on TV quite a lot of evidence and nabbed many Indian Spies.

But there is more to it. Ethnic strife, MQM, poverty, a huge metropolitan city with all its troubles and crime and so on and so forth.

[muhsina]

Yes! that Indian RAW is one nasty demon!!! most of the heinous activities there are sponsored by RAW the Indian Intelligence Agency. The Karachi Police have shown on TV quite a lot of evidence and nabbed many Indian Spies.

But there is more to it. Ethnic strife, MQM, poverty, a huge metropolitan city with all its troubles and crime and so on and so forth.

What goes around comes around.

[Son of Mountains]

Karachii is best city in Pakistan. I 'm in love of it, bcz my Baba Jee lives in that city

[Son of Mountains]

Have you ever been there son of mountains? You will getrobbed in day light. Try talking Pashto in some of it's areas. You might only survive in Afghan/Pashtun dominated areas like sohrab ghot, gulshan iqbal and etc.

Every year i visit Karachii for one week, sometimes twice a year.
Yes u r right, Karachi is not good place for pashtuns due to rubbish terrorism of MQM and Altaf Hussain. This org should be banned but unfortunately, they r expanding MQM nowadays. They have entered into Punjab. Next eye they have kept on Pashtunkhwa. Curse on them who join it.

[Khushal Khan Khattak]

What goes around comes around.

Unfortunately for you, that is not true.

You see, the Afghans of karachi had nothing to do with MQM or India, however, factions like India and its RAW can gain alot if they support MQM. That is exactly what they did.

...........and by saying what you did, in your attempt to malign Pakistan or Punjabis, you have just maligned all the 3.5 million and more Afghans of Karachi.

[Levanaye Zalmaye]

3.5 million, out of which I'd say a good number are garbage collectors, glue-sniffers, prostitutes, beggars, cheap manual laborers, etc. The condition of Afghan nationals here is pathetic. Punjabis and Hindustanis will be very quick to tell you that they took in "x number of your refugees" so we should be grateful to them. However, the truth is that those refugees were only given an empty piece of land to live on in the outskirts of major cities - their food, clothing, tents, medicines, etc, all came from abroad and they were provided with no employment opportunities, they were not enrolled in schools or colleges, they were not taught any skills, they were not managed at all and eventually some took to the streets and became criminals.