Living in Australian cities offers good value for money and ideal for traveling expatriates in the Asia-Pacific, according to Mercer's Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2010.

Mercer made a comparative of costing of more than 200 items including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment with New York City as the base for the index and showed this result.

They survey indicated that in the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Canberra the cost of living is competitive and reasonable for expatriates as compared to the living in the most expensive cities of Luanda, New York, Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Beijing.

Luanda, the capital of Angola in southwestern Africa, was ranked the most expensive city for expatriates in the survey of 214 cities across five continents.

Australian and New Zealand "were competitive destinations for global workers compared to other Asian cities in the region," the study said.

Sydney ranked 24th in the survey of the most expensive cities for expatriates, with Mercer senior associate Anthony Shippard said firms had to evaluate quality of living standards when considering true ''value of living'' in individual cities.

Mr. Shippard said in a statement: ''Combining the cost of living findings with overall quality of living standards reinforces the need for multinational organisations to regularly review multiple external factors and data shifts when determining their expatriate management programs.''