Julius Baer: Singapore Tops Priciest Cities Thrice
Singapore has retained its position as the world’s most expensive city, according to a 2025 lifestyle report by Julius Baer.
For the third year in a row, Singapore was the most expensive city worldwide, according to Julius Baer’s Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report 2025.
By goods and services, the city-state was the costliest for cars and women’s handbags. It was the second most expensive city for women’s shoes and third for residential property and healthcare. However, Singapore remains appealing to high net worth individuals (HNWI) and businesses due to its stable political climate, safety and quality services.
Following Singapore, the world’s costliest cities were London, Hong Kong, Monaco and Zurich.
APAC Spending Habits
In the broader Asia Pacific region, the cost of lifestyle spending habits rose and outpaced all other regions in high-end women’s clothes, hotels and fine dining. Business flights saw the sharpest price increase within the region and globally.
Healthcare was also a notable area of interest. According to the report, 100 percent of HNWIs said they were taking measures to increase their lifespans. This ranged from lifestyle changes, like regular exercise and a good diet, to more extreme measures, such as gene therapy and cryogenic chambers being used by 21 percent of respondents.
Global Price Decline
For the first time since Julius Baer launched the report, the cost of living amongst cities it monitored fell by 2 percent in US dollar terms. This includes a 0.2 percent and 3.4 percent decrease in the price of services and goods, respectively.
The most notable price drops were in the technology package (22.6 percent decrease) and healthcare (15.6 percent). Business flights saw the highest price increase at 18.2 percent.
Julius Baer’s report is based on an index that tracks the cost of a basket of goods and services in 25 cities that is representative of «living well».
