Few would call Vancouver a particularly affordable city, but when the wealthy are comparing it to other cities across the globe, it's a different story.
Swiss bank Julius Baer has ranked the lifestyle costs in 24 "key cities" around the world based on a "basket of goods and services that wealthy individuals buy and use." Basically, what it costs to live a life of luxury around the world.
To crack into the world of "high-net-worth individuals" (HNWI) you need bankable household assets worth more than USD $1 million excluding a primary residence or pensions according to the bank Julius Baer, so this may not apply to all readers.
To those who are HNWIs, Vancouver is not that pricey, it seems.
"Particularly notable is how affordable Vancouver remains relative to other cities in the Index. Canada’s west coast metropolis was once famed for its stratospheric house prices," states the report. "No longer."
Vancouver finished 20th overall; the "basket of goods and services" included 18 different categories. Of those, Vancouver was the cheapest in three: jewellery, watches and MBAs (it tied). Cars (the bank used a BMW X7 as their baseline, which costs $53,000), bikes, treadmills and "degustation" dinners (think: upscale tasting menu meals) also were cheaper in Vancouver than almost anywhere else.
Making Vancouver more expensive for the world's wealthy is its wine selection (second most expensive in the world), health insurance (fourth) and lawyers (seventh).
Other things that got their own categories included whisky (Vancouver was ninth), ladies' handbags (11) and LASIK eye surgery (also 11). And Vancouver's famed housing market ranked right in the middle of the road for the richest folks around the globe, sitting at 12th.
Vancouver was the only Canadian city to make the list, and one of four in North America (along with New York, Miami and Mexico City). On the overall list, Vancouver was sandwiched between Jakarta (19) and Manila (21). Overall, key cities in Asia tended to rank higher on the list.
"What might come as more of a surprise is the lowest-priced region," states the report. "The Americas are the cheapest overall and do not have a single city in the top ten. Miami and Vancouver are both less expensive places to buy our basket of goods than Bangkok."
This is the third year of the report. Last year Vancouver finished 24 overall.
