KUALA Lumpur is no longer among the top 100 most liveable cities for Asian expatriates, says a survey.

Lee Quane, the regional director for Asia of research house ECA International, said Kuala Lumpur has fallen from 25th to 126th place due to the rise in petty crime and pollution.

“In the last five years, Kuala Lumpur has seen a drop in the rankings, falling from 25th to outside the top 100. One of the main causes for this is that whilst other locations have improved their air quality, the high levels of pollution in Kuala Lumpur, coupled with relatively high rates of petty crime, have seen the city slip down the rankings,” he said in a statement.

Lee said, however, that the Malaysian capital scored well in the availability of housing for Asian expatriates to move into the city.

City ranks are based on the last Location Ratings survey by ECA International, which measures the quality of expatriate living conditions in over 480 locations globally on the level of difficulty the expatriate will experience in adapting to a new location.

Factors evaluated include climate; availability of health services; housing and utilities; isolation; access to a social network and leisure facilities; infrastructure; personal safety; political tensions and air quality. 

In Asia, Singapore is ranked the most liveable city in the world for Asian expats due to its low crime rates, quality schools and healthcare, and lower levels of pollution.

Chinese cities, such as Beijing, saw the biggest drop falling 10 places to 134th mainly due to the increase in internet censorship and ban on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in the past 12 months, as well as worsening pollution.

Japanese cities made it into the top 40 due to excellent facilities and infrastructure, while Australian cities were in the top three behind Singapore, with Brisbane at second, and Sydney and Adelaide in joint third.

“Australian cities always tend to perform strongly in terms of liveability for Asian expats due to their excellent facilities and infrastructure, as well as the generally low levels of crime and air pollution,” Lee said. – March 14, 2018.