Having occupied the 19th spot on the list for a while, Dubai’s had a massive drop to 26th spot, despite the introduction of VAT in January.
It’s important to make sense of what exactly this means for the UAE, the main point is not to get any wrong ideas that cost of living is going to suddenly decrease drastically. Rather, all this mercer survey proves is that in comparison to other cities like Hong Kong for example, Dubai isn’t AS expensive.
What can its fall on the list be attributed to? Well, largely impart to the realestate market which has been experiencing a downturn over the past couple of years. This has significantly affected rent prices and caused them to drop.
