Auckland has been rated as the 14th top city for expats, coming in well ahead of any Australian city, a new survey has found.
The Expat City Rankings 2017, by expatriate networking and guide company InterNations, found that despite its high cost of living and lack of affordable housing, expats to Auckland found it easy to settle, had good working hours and felt at home.
Nearly 8000 respondents from 51 cities in 40 countries took part in the survey. They were asked to rate more than 25 different aspects of urban life abroad on a scale of one to seven.
Surprising the survey's author's, Manama in Bahrain was rated as the overall top city for expats, followed by Prague in the Czech Republic, Madrid in Spain, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Amsterdam in The Netherlands.
Equally surprisingly, Paris came in third to last place in the survey, only lagging behind Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Lagos in Nigeria.
Auckland was the only New Zealand city to feature on the list and Sydney the only Australian. It was ranked in an unenviable 44th place.
The survey assessed four essential measures: quality of urban living, getting settled, urban work life, and finance and housing.
Top five cities for expats
1.
Manama
2.
Prague
3.
Madrid
4.
Kuala Lumpur
5.
Amsterdam
...
14.
Auckland
Bottom five cities
51.
Lagos
50.
Jeddah
49.
Paris
48.
Riyadh
47.
Dublin