London world’s second most expensive place to locate employees

London is the world’s second most expensive city in the world in which to locate employees, a new report shows.

Hong Kong won the dubious honour of first place in the cost rankings, and New York narrowly missed out on second place, trailing London in third, while Paris was named fourth most expensive.

According to research by property company Savills, the live/work cost per employee per year hit $123,000 in Hong Kong, $115,000 in London, $112,000 in New York and $107,000.

The cost to rent residential and office space per employee has risen 21% since 2009, when most world city rental markets bottomed out, the report says.

The cheapest cities emerged as Rio and Mumbai, which are 60% cheaper than average and less than a quarter of the price of Hong Kong.