Toronto Most Expensive Canadian City

Being headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Synergy Merchant Services and its staff are very well aware of how expensive it is to live in this city. In addition, working with numerous business owners in Canada’s largest city, we know how important it is to invest money properly in order to turn a profit.

If you had asked us, we would likely have told you that Toronto is Canada’s most expensive city. However, as QMI Agency’s Sharon Singleton wrote yesterday, Toronto only just recently overtook Vancouver as the nation’s most expensive city. Singleton reveals that a recent survey, conducted by Mercer, found that Toronto is actually the 59th most expensive city in the world.

The consultancy firm’s annual cost of living report also discovered that Vancouver currently sits at number 65. Incredibly, Toronto leapfrogged the west coast city by jumping up 17 spots from its position in last year’s survey. Other expensive Canadian cities include Montreal in 79th and Calgary at 96th globally.

Interestingly, the survey also noted that Canada’s capital of Ottawa is also the nation’s least expensive city to live in. It is ranked at 114th in the world. Causing Toronto’s lofty jump on this year’s list was the cost of housing, says Singleton. As well, in general, the stronger loonie pushed more Canadian cities up on the list.

The survey takes a look at cities in 214 countries on five continents. As Singleton points out, “it compares the costs of more than 200 items, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. The report is used by companies when deciding where to locate staff.”

Topping the charts as the world’s most expensive city is Angola’s capital of Luanda. Tokyo, Japan came in at second with N’Djamena, Chad claiming the third spot. Interestingly, these findings highlight the fact that some of the world’s poorest countries contain some of the world’s most expensive cities.

One of our Synergy team members pointed out today that he wasn’t surprised by Toronto’s spot on the list. “I’ve always thought it was expensive to live here,” he pointed out, “You can buy a house in Ajax (a town just east of Toronto) for the same amount of money it takes to buy a condo downtown!”