Posted by
OffThePeak
12 yrs ago
HK : Best Place to Live, Globally?
That is a been hard to accept
======================
HONG KONG UBER ALLES ?
Those of us who live here cannot believe it,
But HK has just been ranked as the "most Liveable City" on the planet
It was in an EIU Survey : best city in the world
Live and Let Live .. Jul 3rd 2012 | LONDON
..
HOW to measure the immeasurable? Trying to rank the world's best cities is like trying to quantify the finest mother on mother's day—most of us have a biased interest. Even the most wordly cosmocrats place different emphasis on different features of a city.
For years, this newspaper's sibling, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), has rated the world's top cities in a livability survey. This considers 30 indicators of varying weights in five broad areas, including social stability, infrastructure, education and culture. As an innovative experiment to improve the index, the EIU partnered with BuzzData, a firm that lets users share information, to run a contest encouraging people build upon the ranking.
The winning method looked at seven new indicators related to "spatial" qualities (available here). These included the amount of green space and urban sprawl, as well as pollution, isolation and even cultural assets. The good news is that these features are probably important ones when judging a city. The bad news is that they may not have been applied in quite the right way, since the resulting list (below) comes up with a few oddities. [/i]
Major citiies
========== : Spatial Adjusted Liveability Index
========== : === EIU Liveability index (major cities only)
========== : === === Change in rank (excl. smaller cities)
Hong Kong----- : #1 : 10 : +9
Amsterdam----- : #2 : #8 : +6
Osaka----------- : #3 : #3 : +0
Paris------------ : #4 : #5 : +1
Sydney--------- : #5 : #2 : - 3
Stockholm------ : #6 : #4 : - 2
Berlin----------- : #7 : #7 : +0
Toronto--------- : #8 : #1 : - 7
Munich---------- : #9 : #9 : +0
Tokyo----------- : 10 : #6 : - 4
[i]Consider the top-rated city, Hong Kong. It moved up nine notches from tenth. Does it deserve the crown based on its spatial features? To be sure, it has lush vegetation. But that is because the city sits on such a vertical, tropical rock that it is impossible to build in many places. And although hiking trails at the peak are only a ten minute cab ride from downtown, one can only enjoy it a few months of the year, after the monsoon runs dry and the suffocating humidity and heat burns away. Meanwhile, [b]Hong Kong is losing expats by the droves because of pollution[/b]: a generation of school children are condemned to carrying asthma inhalers since their little lungs are speckled with contaminants blowing across the harbour from mainland China. That might not sound so livable to some, particularly if the rankings are "spatially adjusted".
/more: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/07/best-city-world
I would be TEMPTED to bet on Toronto for the Future - especially on a Price-adjusted basis
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HK has many good features - low tax base, good and cheap public transport, high employment, robust property and business sectors and low crime rate among them. It also has many negatives - a vastly overpaid and incompetent civil service, inept political leadership who think that they are above the law, awful pollution (and environmental standards generally), dismal educational policies, entrenched monopolies for many key services and the Kuk.
But you could draw up a list of good and bad features about any city.
I am mostly happy here.....so long as I manage to get out of the city a few times each year.
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Indeed.
(Low) Taxes and (great) Transport - are two highly positive features.
Thanks to those, you can get rich - But it might come at some cost to your health
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Munich would be my choice.
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I'm a Brit and I'm happy with HK particularly from the security point of view and schooling for my kids. Berlin is a lot of fun and I think Osaka would be too if I spoke Japanese. However, I don't like the idea of earthquakes. Munich has high tax but it is beautiful and has some nice seasonal changes - hot in summer, cold enough for snow in winter. Rail and bus links are good, air links okay for Europe but not a mojor hub like Frankfurt. Good location for Italy and France. Can go ski-ing, sailing and hiking. Great health care and education. Loads of bars. restaurants etc. Very safe by European standards.
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I suppose there is a lot of personal preference involved - I would hate to live anywhere that was either cold, required me to battle through traffic for hours each day to get anywhere, with punitive taxes or with a high crime rate.
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I don't mind paying the tax if it is spent properly. For example, I don't like paying tax for people like parole officers when it would be cheaper and safer to keep prisoners in cells.
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clearly this is all a matter of opinion, but anyone that values health, excercise, open space and outdoor activities would never want to live in Hong Kong long term. But for the urban/concrete jungle type, HK would be fine.
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"Berlin is a lot of fun"
I own some shares in a small property company with several flats in Berlin, and have thought it might be an interesting place to live for a few years.
A few questions:
+ Can you get by with only English?
+ How many days a year can you live there without getting caught in the Tax net?
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I've found that Berlin especially and Germany in general is pretty easy to get by speaking only English.
Not sure about the tax net portion, my work there was paid mostly in cash under the table. (bartending / prostitution)
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I've always been proud of my ability to multitask.
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i love HK, but recently when I go there, it just feels more and more crowded everytime.
it is wonderful in many ways, but the immense crowds and the prospect of having to live in a flat that is less than 900sqf and pay a ridiculously high price for it, has failed to convince me to move to HK permanently.
i think Paris is more livable than HK, but just really not very entertaining of a city.
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'Did anybody mention Singapore? In case of Hong Kong fire break glass.'
Better not break anything, or even chew gum there - you will wind up in jail
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Lunatic, I completely agree. Hong Kong seems more crowded than ever. One important difference between Hong Kong and most western cities, is space. Hong Kong is cramped, and unless you are among the wealthiest of its citizens, you will be living in tiny quarters and fighting for space. i really don't know how you can rank living in Hong Kong against that of Sydney, Toronto, Stockholm?? Perhaps if you are comparing the richest 1%, than Hong Kong compares. But take the person from the 50th percentile income, and Hong Kong falls way behind most cities due to terrible air and lack of space. The average hk'er lives in less than 500 sq ft.
I lived in NYC, and it feels much more open. Its nice to have the option of moving to a burrough like Brooklyn where a large home can be bought.
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You don't come to HK for lifestyle. Lifestyle is for losers. Ha, ha.
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"For the next month it has to be London."
Unless there is some sort of "Event", which many have now predicted
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Pollution is often mentioned as a negative for HK (which it is)... yet life expectancy ranks second highest in the world....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
The latest data has put life expectancy to 86 years for females and 79 for males. There must be something here that keeps people living longer!
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Remember rob, the air quality didn't start to get real bad in HK until maybe 20 or 30 years ago. Believe it or not, Shenzhen was a city of only about 300,000 in 1980 before the "special economic zone" was form. Since 1980, Shenzhen has exploded to 14 million people and has become the world's factory.
Citing HK's life expectancy as a defense against air quality issues is like a cigarette smoker claiming smoking is harmless after 20 years of smoking. Most people can smoke cigarettes for 20 years with little apparent harm, but in the long run it will catch up with them as will this air to hong kong residents.
It is those who were born in Hong Kong after 1990 who will be effected the most. Those babies are born "smokers" so to speak. At this moment, no one that was exposed to this awful air as a baby or child is past the age of 30. Therefore I would not expect the air quality to have a major affect on the life expentancy.
In about 20 years, we will start to get the first generation of 40 to 50 year olds who were exposed to this dangerous air their entire life. Than we can start evaluating the damage. I suspect their will be a huge increase in lung cancers at that time.
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Unattendedbag, that's very true and such a pity for this city.
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BEATING Hong Kong is...
The World’s Richest Country
A man is silhouetted against the skyline of Louis Vuitton’s floating store and the financial district of Singapore. Yet another wealth report has put tiny Singapore on the top of its charts – this time, as the wealthiest nation in the world by GDP per capita, beating out Norway, the U.S., Hong Kong and Switzerland.
The report, released by Knight Frank and Citi Private Wealth, estimates that Singapore’s GDP per capita – at US$56,532 in 2010, measured by purchasing power parity – is the highest in the world, topping Norway (US$51, 226), the US (US$45, 511) and Hong Kong (US$45, 301). The report also predicts that Singapore will hold its place as the world’s most affluent country in 2050 (by GDP per capita), followed closely by Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea who will displace Norway and Switzerland as the world’s richest places.
This figure is no doubt bolstered by the staggering number of millionaires in the city-state, which Knight Frank and Citi Private Wealth predict will only keep growing. According to their estimates, Singapore will see a 67% increase in centa-millionaires over the next four years – an über-wealthy class with over US$100 million in disposable wealth. Earlier reports, like the Boston Consulting Group’s Wealth Report released in June, said Singapore has the highest percentage of millionaire households in the world, a title the city-state has held on to for two years running.
Singapore is not the lone beneficiary of Southeast Asia’s wealth explosion, and according to the report the number of people in the entire region with more than US$100 million in disposable assets (excluding property, for example) has increased by 80% in the past five years. Between 2010 and 2011, the number of these centa-millionaires grew 13% — higher than the global average at 6% — and will grow by 44% by 2016. Correspondingly, some Southeast Asian cities have seen property prices increase significantly in the past year, including the Indonesian island of Bali where property prices increased 15% and Jakarta, where they increased by 14.3%.
There are now 18, 000 people with US$100 million or more in disposable assets in Southeast Asia, China and Japan, according to Knight Frank’s estimates – more than North America, which has 17, 000, and Western Europe with 14, 000...
+continued: http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2012/08/15/singapore-home-to-the-worlds-richest-people/
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vak
12 yrs ago
Off the peak, you forgot the ASIANS with UNDECLARED wealth in SWISS BANKS from places like Indonesia/Malaysia/India.
Singapores wealth percentage may be true but look at the history.
HK population increased marginally in the last 2 decades compared to Singapore. HK still only has less than 2% NON CHINESE expats . Singapore was a free for all with the investment visa and its causing a big amount of social upheaval with 'Mainlander with money ' buying thir way in making their population 2 and a half times what it used to be in a decade. As a result the locals have a lot of resentment against the RICH MAINLAND arrivals.
What the HKSAR govt is doing is sustainable in the long run.
In terms of HK being liveable its open to everyones interpretation. We live in the countryside and love the city, people, rule of law and convinience.
Yes pollution is a problem specially if you choose to live in mid levels or Pok fulam.
Maybe that is why HK women have the highest life span compared to the rest of the world. The Men come in the top 5.
Has to be the Chinese Tea. LOL
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@ vak - I thought the life expectancy thing came from all the MSG in the food.
It's also worth nothing tha HK's country parks are being rapidly depleted by a combination of development projects (including infrastructure) and the Kuk's claim on more land than actually exists in the New Territories. Also, at some stage between now and 2015, HK will need at least one major new landfill site for rubbish and (probably) another large waste incinerator. It's pretty much inevitable that those projects will take another chunk of what's left of the countryside (although Tamar would be a better solution).
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bmurv
12 yrs ago
Sorry I have to disagree that Hong Kong is the best place to live or one of the best places to live. The quality of life here is poor, the overcrowdedness, air quality, medical care (both quality and ethics), climate, access to quality education, to name a few. HK is great for very few people and miserable for the majority. It is not easy for the few to feel good about the overall when they actually do still have to see how the majority of people live. Pleasantness is something that is definitely missing in general.
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Here's Ed:
http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/images/gallery/1817_nyepi_2010_182.jpg
Searching for a better way-of-life in Indonesia
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Having fantasies about being able to get a place in Ticino, the Italian speaking canton in Switzerland. Not a huge fan of the country - the German speaking parts are like dull Germany and the Francophone cantons are like a dull France. However, Ticino looks like a well-run Italy which sounds good. You can get a direct flight to Milan from Hong Kong, and Lugano - a banking centre and largest city in Ticino - is about an hour away on the train. In Ticino I think EU citizens need to get a residency permit, known as a CE permit, before they can buy property and my understanding is that you need to hold it for five years if you don't want to pay capital gains tax (though this needs to be checked out - most rules made by the cantons but they can't discriminate too much against EU citizens as many Swiss live in the EU). However, you are not going to get whacked for tax in the same way as in the rest of Europe. The downside is that it is not cheap, I would reckon you would need about 1-2m Swiss francs to set up shop and live fairly frugally. I would also be worried about the large number of tassled loafers and dodgy sweaters but that might just be a Monaco thing.
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@ Loyd - sounds kind of pricey to me. I haven't been to Switzerland, but it always shows up as one of the most expensive places on the planet. As far as Italy is concerned, I will pass - my one visit to the country left me with the impression that the people are almost as rude and unfriendly to vistors as the Spanish.
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Yes, the stuff of fantasy. But if the HK$ ever floated (which I doubt) and by some miracle the Swiss franc didn't also rise, it might be do-able if all the other planets were to align in my miniscule investment universe. Digressing rather a lot but Patricia Highsmith, the writer of the Ripley series of novels, used to live in Locarno which is close to Lugano. Quite like her stuff but after seeing the film 'Ripley's Game' on TV the other night, I can no longer take her work seriously. John Malkovich plays Ripley in this final instalment of 'The Ripliad'. It starts off okay but as the film progresses, Malkovich increasingly resembles Mr Burns from 'The Simpsons' until he almost indistinguishable from the cartoon character at the very end. I was in stitches. Worth getting it out on DVD.
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Thanks Softy. But if I can get to Milan in an hour, I would just need somewhere on the main line - preferably just across the border. I have briefly visited Milan but have never been to Ticino; as I said above, I need the safety of Swiss bureaucracy and tax. By the way, old Swiss Germans may be fun when you get to know them. I'm sure they get up to all sorts when the fondue sets come out.
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