Six of the world's 30 most pricey cities for expatriate workers are in Australia, a survey has found, with Perth jumping 11 spots in the global ranking.
Sydney has claimed the title of Australia's most expensive city for expatriates, narrowly missing the top 10 globally but coming in 11th in the latest Mercer cost-of-living survey.
The home of the Opera House was followed closely by Melbourne at 15th most expensive and Perth sneaking in the top 20 at 19th.
All rose from their ranking the previous year, with Perth climbing 11 spots from number 30.
Mercer principal Nathalie Constantin-Metral said Australian cities had experienced some of the biggest jumps as the Aussie dollar strengthened against it's US counterpart.
"Demand for rental properties has also increased significantly in all the Australian cities we rank," she said in a statement.
"Coupled with very limited availability, the result has been very tight markets and increased prices."
The survey took place in March when the Australian dollar hovered above parity with the greenback.
It compared the cost of more than 200 items including transport, food and housing across 214 cities globally, using New York as its basis.
Canberra came in as the fourth most expensive of the six Australian cities surveyed, jumping 11 places from 23 the previous year, while Brisbane rose seven spots to take 24th place.
But it was Australia's city of churches, Adelaide, that increased it's relative costliness the most, rising 19 places from 46 to 27th spot.
Two New Zealand cities also shot up the list this year, after that country's currency also strengthened against the US dollar.
Auckland and Wellington both jumped 62 places to come in as 56th and 74th most expensive cities, respectively.
Tokyo claimed the title of world's most expensive city for expatriates, while unstable economic situations across Europe caused most European countries to fall in comparison with the previous year.
