Joburg and Cape Town Voted 2 of the Best Cities for Expats to Live and Work

InterNations recently released its 2017 list of the best cities in the world for living and working abroad… and two South African cities feature in the Top 27 Best Places where expats (from other countries obviously!) are happiest. They are Johannesburg and Cape Town… and Joburg actually features way ahead of Cape Town.

The city rankings are based on survey responses from nearly 8,000 expats (7,985 to be exact) in 40 countries. A city had to be mentioned at least 45 times to be included, and rankings were based on the quality and cost of urban living, quality of work life and finances, and ease of settling into the city.

Johannesburg came seventh in the list, with a cost of living apparently 56.9% lower that that of living in New York City.

The site’s respondents say that the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom in the city centre is $480.83, a Cappuccino on average costs $1.67 and local beer $2.07.

Cape Town just made it into the list at number 26. Its cost of living is even better than Joburg’s – 59.1% lower than New York, but the average rent for a one-bedroom in the city centre is set at $716.30. Cappuccino is slightly less at $1.62, and local beer is the same.

The best city for expats from other nations is apparently Manama in Bahrain… followed by Prague (Czech Republic) and Madrid (Spain). Popular South African expat locations Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Amsterdam (Netherlands) are fourth and fifth favourite.

Manama is apparently easy to settle in and 92% of respondents said you can live there without speaking Arabic.

Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on the other hand came second to last – apparently not easy to feel at at home there. Paris came third to last with expats also finding it hard to settle into the French capital. Nigeria’s Lagos came last with many complaints, including terrible medical care…

View the full lists here:
www.internations.org/expat-insider/2017/the-best-and-worst-cities-for-expats-39279