Basel, the most expensive city in Europe?
How much does it cost to buy in a city? So what food, what does a visit to a restaurant cost? And how deep do you have to dig into your pocket every month to be able to pay the rent? The Numbeo database has been examining precisely these aspects since 2009 in order to enable an annual ranking of the most important cities in Europe. The German Travel platform Travelbook carries the data for 2023 at the beginning of January together and came to the conclusion that the most expensive city in Europe is Basel. The food prices are said to have made the difference compared to other Swiss cities. According to the ranking, these are even higher than in other Swiss cities.
The top six of the fifty most expensive cities in Europe is lined with Swiss cities. Zurich follows in second place and Lausanne in third place. Zug, Bern and Geneva are also in the top six. Not only the costs for rent, groceries or restaurant visits were taken into account, but also the local purchasing power. But: Attention: The numbers should be treated with caution, since the collection of the mass of data works in a similar way to the Wikipedia platform. Anyone in the world can fill in price and other information. The website also accesses shop data. Filters then help to clean up the numbers and calculate average values. The data situation is better for some countries and regions, so the fewer users enter prices, the higher the error rate.
Basel in fourth place in the Mercer rating
Should one simply dismiss the rating as unprofessional? It’s not that easy. Because there are reliable ratings that internationally active companies and governments also rely on. One of them is the Mercer rating. In the Mercer Cost of Living study the most expensive cities in Europe and the world are ranked annually. The figures for 2022 show: Basel is also at the top of the list here. The city of Hong Kong is in first place, followed by Zurich and Geneva, and Basel in fourth place. Only four European cities are represented in the top 10 list, all of which are in Switzerland.
Mercer’s Cost of Living Ranking is one of the world’s most comprehensive data collections and is used by multinational companies and governments to set wages for employees working abroad. The base city for all comparisons is New York City and currency fluctuations are measured against the US dollar. Overall, the survey includes over 400 cities worldwide. It compares the cost of an international basket of goods and services with more than 200 items, including housing, transportation, groceries, clothing, household goods and entertainment.
Location search of companies using ratings
A different ranking by Mercer is relevant for the location marketing of the respective cities. The so-called quality of life city ranking is aimed at people who want or have to work abroad. You will receive information about the cities in which the quality of life is particularly high. In the most recent quality of life city ranking of 2019, Basel ranks tenth. Zurich is second and Geneva ninth. This rating is also a so-called overall assessment of the living conditions in individual cities. When asked by Telebasel, Sabine Horvath, head of location marketing for the city of Basel, says that these ratings are incredibly important when companies assess their location. The target group is not those who already live here, but specifically companies that could send expats to Basel. However, being expensive as a city does not automatically mean that the quality of life is also high. It is significant that Basel ranks high in both areas.
From a tourism point of view, the Mercer rating also has a right weight, as Christoph Bosshardt, Deputy Director of Basel Tourism, says on request. A high ranking among the most expensive cities does not mean a price disadvantage from a tourism point of view. “We can justify the prices with quality,” says Bosshardt. So far, no negative feedback has come from tourists in this regard.
Not everyone is happy with the placement
“Positive rankings make us very happy as a location and we use them to market the Basel Area as a location for innovation and business,” agrees Martin Jordan from the Agency for Location Promotion Basel Area Business & Innovation. The rankings would also have to be put in relation. In the Mercer study, the cost of living is high, but you have to look at it in the context of the high wage level and high purchasing power in Switzerland. “In view of the competition among the Swiss economic centers, it is an advantage for the Basel region that the Mercer study shows lower living costs for Basel than for Zurich and Geneva,” says Jordan.
But not everyone is happy about the “good” ranking of the city of Basel among the most expensive cities in the world. Domenico Sposato, manager of Caritas Both Basel, warns: “The housing situation in Basel is very acute.” What has not been taken into account in such assessments is the question of where people with ‘smaller wallets’ should go. You also benefit from it, who cannot benefit from a high wage level. The people who are most affected by the constantly rising prices are not only the people who have the least of all, but also those who can barely afford to make a living. The poverty line for a family of four is currently CHF 4,000 per month. “If you were to raise this limit by 500 francs, the number of poor people would double,” says Sposato. The result of this is clearly visible: “People are migrating to the agglomeration and to the countryside because they can no longer afford apartments in the city. “Those affected are very often people with professional qualifications who simply do not earn enough to be able to finance life in the city.”
Attractive for expats, dangerous for families scratching the poverty line
Patrizia Bernasconi, Managing Director of the Basel Tenants’ Association, also confirms that the gap between rich and poor in Basel is growing and that many people in Basel can no longer find a place to live in Basel. With the adoption of the Basel housing protection initiative, however, instruments are now required that would continue to promote the preservation of affordable housing and would not completely prevent housing construction and necessary renovations. “The foundation has actually been laid. Implementation must start now,” says Bernasconi.
Conclusion: The city of Basel is extremely attractive for expats and therefore also for companies looking for a location. Basel tourism does not promise below the high prices, as these are high in the rest of Switzerland. In other words: the tourists accept it. On the other hand, for people who want to live in the city on a tight budget, things are becoming increasingly tight. 1,000 people moved away from the canton of Basel-Stadt in 2021. For the first time since 2005, net migration was negative. The migration to agglomeration communities that do not directly border the city was even higher than average. The population in the canton of Baselland continued to increase sharply.