Mercer Annual Rankings | Montreal more expensive, but still relatively affordable

The cost of living in Montreal is less affordable… than last year, if we measure it against that of more than 200 cities around the world. Fortunately, it is good to live there.

In the middle of the world

If you found your notice of rent increase rather high this year, the new issue of the Mercer ranking – where cities are presented in order of unaffordability – will confirm your impression: the cost of living in Montreal has increased, in comparison with that of other major international cities.

The annual rankings of the Mercer firm published Monday now place Montreal 118^e on the list of cities, ranked by cost of living. A jump of 17 positions, she who was 135^e Last year.

In total, 226 cities appear in this analysis. Montreal is almost halfway there, just behind the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana.

The Mercer firm calculates the cost of living by analyzing housing, transport, services and other current expenses. In particular, we want to put together a basket which will include certain foods (eggs, coffee, olive oil), but also the average price of a haircut and a pair of jeans, as well as the price of ‘essence.

In total, 200 points are analyzed to carry out this comparison exercise.

However, Mercer’s study notes that there is more than cost of living when it comes to choosing a place to settle: there is quality of life – calculated by various factors including security in its environment, as well as the presence of a solid infrastructure and a healthy social network.

In an exercise where we establish a correlation between the cost of living index and that of the quality of life for certain metropolises of the world, Montreal looks good. It is among the cities with the lowest cost of living and the highest quality of life alongside Warsaw, Budapest and Kuala Lumpur.

Toronto, Queen

In North America, New York is the most expensive city, but in Canada, Toronto is first at 92^e place, ahead of Vancouver (101^e), where we also found that the cost of living had seriously increased in recent months – it was at 116^e position last year.

Followed by Montreal, then Ottawa (126) and Calgary (141).

Only Toronto lost ranks, two places, making it the only city in the country where living is more affordable this year than in 2023 – the data was analyzed as of March 2024.

Beyond a succession of figures which position the cities of the world in relation to each other, the exercise carried out by Mercer makes it possible to note variations in certain areas of expenditure such as housing.

“The cost of housing is an important factor in the ranking of cities according to the cost of living,” we read in the June 17 report. Between 2023 and 2024, this cost has experienced great volatility around the world, with housing rental prices varying significantly from city to city. For example, the city of Istanbul in Turkey saw an average price increase of 301%, while Tel Aviv saw a drop of 22%. »

Overall, the scarcity of housing has pushed prices up. A global phenomenon.

The most expensive

But there are places where everything is expensive: if you are thinking of moving abroad for studies and work, know that Hong Kong, Singapore and Zurich are the most expensive territories, with Switzerland alone having four cities in the pack at the top of the places where life is most expensive. In addition to Zurich, living in Geneva, Basel and Bern costs a fortune.

But this is nothing new, Swiss cities have always been ranked very high in Mercer’s list. And last year, Hong Kong, Singapore and Zurich were all three in the same ranking. In his analysis, Mercer details that both real estate and the cost of transport as well as those of essential spending on services or goods such as meals remain very high in these three cities.

Among the places where there have been the greatest differences, the case of Mexico City is notable. The Mexican capital moved from 79^e at 33^e place, a spectacular jump of 46 places upwards.

The dozen Argentinian eggs

In this type of exercise, several variables are analyzed. In the food department, we notably calculated the differences in the price of certain foodstuffs which inevitably reflect the rates of food inflation which have particularly affected certain countries.

In Buenos Aires, the price of a dozen eggs jumped by more than 400% in one year. In the same city, the price of a cup of coffee is now 282% higher, while the increase in the price of olive oil in one year is practically 700%. This will not surprise any observer, as Argentina experienced a severe inflationary crisis in the last year, when Mercer analysts were collecting their data. Inflation is gradually slowing in this South American country, but Buenos Aires ranks 77 in 2024^e in the list of cities with the highest cost of living; she was 109^e Last year.

1. Check out Mercer’s rankings