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Why Dubai is more affordable than other major cities

Dubai - The study showed that luxury property prices in Dubai are nearly 90 per cent cheaper than the most expensive city.

Luxury comes at a high cost in most cities around the world. But not so much in Dubai - thanks to very little taxes in the emirate.
Dubai offers pretty good consumer value for certain high-end goods and services, such as luxury jewellery, business class travelling and wedding banquets amongst top luxury cities in the world, according to Swiss bank Julius Bär's Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report 2020.
It compared 28 cities for prices of 20 luxury and lifestyle products such as high-end real estate, cars, business class flight tickets, hotel suites, ladies shoes, men's suites, jewellery, boarding schools, universities, lawyers, wedding banquets and laser eye surgeries, among others.
Interestingly, Dubai didn't rank the most expensive city in any of these luxury products.
Globally, the emriate was ranked 17th most expensive city, more affordable than Hong Kong, New York, Singapore, London, Zurich, Bangkok, Paris, Vienna, Sydney and Rio de Janeiroetc. Mumbai, Johannesburg and Frankfurt were the least expensive cities in 2019.
The study showed that luxury property prices in Dubai are nearly 90 per cent cheaper than the most expensive city, Monaco, while owning a car is nearly 36 per cent cheaper in Dubai than Singapore, which is the most expensive city to buy one.
"Dubai is not only cheap for the luxury property market; it is relatively cheap when it comes to owning hig-end cars. Dubai is quite interesting also when it comes to wedding banquets and buying business class tickets. On the other side, Dubai is positioning itself more and more about city that would like to attract wellness services companies. These services are relative expensive in Dubai but we believe that the emirate will see more supply, hence, the prices will automatically start going down," said Diego Wuergler, managing director and head of investment advisory at Julius Bär.
"We see stabilisation in Dubai property prices because of Expo 2020, but it is a short-term measure and Dubai has to balance supply and demand in residential property market," he added.
When Dubai is compared with the 28 cities' average, it is cheaper in residential property, jewellery, cars, business class tickets and wedding banquets. But the emirate is costlier in buying watches, ladies handbags and shoes, men's suits, pianos, hotel suites, fine dining and beauty services.
Globally, Asia is the most expensive region, particularly for residential property, and is home to six of the 10 most expensive cities. European cities offer the best value; the continent's best-valued cities for luxurious living are Barcelona and Frankfurt. The Americas rank second overall led by New York, while Vancouver lays claim to the most affordable city within the region.
- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com