Last updated at 17:43, Wednesday, 10 March 2010

People looking for a better life overseas should consider moving to Singapore, the United Arab Emirates or the United States, according to research out this week.

Simply the best: Singapore topped the poll for earnings, accommodation and all life’s luxuries

The three countries topped a poll of the best places to live as an ex-patriate in terms of providing the highest living standards, best financial opportunities and nicest accommodation, according to HSBC Bank International.

But at the other end of the scale, Jersey was ranked as the least desirable place to live, largely due to the poor accommodation and low level of luxury on offer to ex-pats.

The UK and France also ranked poorly, coming in 14th and 13th places respectively, for the same reasons.

Spain did little better, coming in 12th place, while Australia was 10th, scoring highly in terms of the level of luxury people could obtain, their access to good accommodation and the opportunity to earn and save money, but scoring badly in terms of the amount of time that people stayed there.

The research, which was based on a survey of 2,155 ex-patriates across four continents, looked at the opportunities and challenges faced by people living away from home, as well as how easy people found it to integrate, how much they liked their new lifestyle and how their children found the new country.

Hong Kong provided ex-pats with the highest salaries in the world, with nearly half of all foreigners earning more than £100,000 a year, with those in the finance and management sectors the highest paid.

India, the UAE and Singapore all scored highly in terms of providing people living there with the opportunity to save money.

People who had relocated to Singapore were also most likely to be happy with their accommodation, with 74 per cent saying it had improved since leaving their home country, followed by 61 per cent of people in the US and 59 per cent in Belgium.

But the UK was deemed to be the most expensive country for foreigners to find accommodation in, with more than 85 per cent saying their living costs had increased.

The report also looked at the level of luxury people had in the new country – access to private healthcare, having more than one property, employing domestic staff and having a swimming pool.

The UAE was rated the most luxurious location, followed by Singapore and India, while the UK was deemed to offer the least luxurious lifestyle.

The top countries for ex-patriates to live in are:

1 Singapore

2 United Arab Emirates

3 United States

4 Belgium

5 Hong Kong

6 Germany

First published at 05:37, Friday, 01 August 2008
Published by $m.local.sitebase