Out of the 69 most expensive cities across the globe, Israel’s metropolis was placed at 10th for overall cost of living in 2025.

By JNS staff

Tel Aviv is the world’s eighth most expensive city in terms of residential real estate prices—despite a year of war in the Jewish state—an annual report released last month by Deutsche Bank has found.

“Now in its ninth edition,” the bank stated on June 24, the Mapping the World’s Prices 2025 report, “is the definitive guide to quality of life, rental costs, and prices for phones, coffee, taxis and more in 69 cities from Abu Dhabi to Zurich.”

According to the report, the average home in Tel Aviv’s central area costs $18,469 per square meter—which is the approximate price of $1,850,870 for a 100-square meter apartment.

Hong Kong topped the list with homes costing $25,946 per square meter in its city center. Zurich ($23,938), Singapore ($22,955), Seoul ($22,875), Geneva ($21,491), London ($20,953) and New York ($18,532) ranked higher than Israel’s metropolis.

Paris, Munich and Sydney ranked lower than Tel Aviv, at $14,286, $13,396 and $13,104 respectively.

In total, Tel Aviv ranked 10th on the list of the 69 most expensive cities in the world, according to the report. This aggregate calculation was based on various economic indicators, such as housing prices, rent, food costs, transportation, services, net salaries and purchasing power.

Tel Aviv’s high ranking was due to “being the capital of a small, but densely populated, country with strict zoning rules and more recently, a booming tech sector,” the report read.

In the last five years, home prices in Tel Aviv skyrocketed by about 100%, registering one of the highest spikes in the OECD.

Tel Aviv was also ranked 18th for renting costs for an average three-room apartment in its central hub at around $3,088 per month.

New York City, in contrast, topped the list with an average of $8,388 per month.

Additionally, the report’s Purchase Power Index showed that wages in Israel are only partially keeping up with rising prices. The net salary in Tel Aviv recorded about $3,580 per month, placing it 23rd in the world. Despite a 70% rise in net salary over the past five years, it still came in short compared to rising home prices.

In the mortgage as percentage of income table (the percentage of income necessary to pay a mortgage on an average apartment), Tel Aviv ranks 17th in the world, with a rate of 132% of a dual-income household’s earnings. In this index, Tel Aviv ranked higher than most cities in the developed world, such as New York, London, Prague, Rome, Paris, Singapore and others. Of the world’s developed cities, only Seoul and Hong Kong rivaled Tel Aviv in this housing affordability index.

Deutsche Bank moreover noted that U.S. cities were relatively cheap when its annual report launched in 2012, “with costs of goods and salaries generally outside the global top 10.”

However, more than a decade later, the U.S. now ranks near the top in both categories, with only Switzerland coming out on top. The report referred to “U.S. exceptionalism” as the chief reason for the change, citing the U.S. dollar, a strong financial sector and its global-dominant tech sector as the principal driving factors.