Luanda is the World's Most Expensive City?

Yes, it's true. According to the Mercer cost of living survey, Luanda, Angola's capital and one of the fastest growing cities in the world has made it's mark as the world's most expensive city. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time that an African city has made this list (not saying that African cities are cheap to live in, because many are not). Second to Luanda is Tokyo and third is N'Djamena, the capital of another African nation, Chad. Check out this report from CNN International.

How did a city of an emerging economy, after just shy of a decade of an end to one of the world's longest civil wars become so expensive to call home? Well, Angola is in the top five in regard to being a major oil producer in Africa, causing people from all around the world to invest. Then add in China's massive involvement in redeveloping the infrastructure causing even more expats in need of housing at an international standard. Angolans are becoming wealthier, people moving in to Angola have money, and real estate and commodities of an international standard are currently scarce. Of course, this drives prices WAY up. Despite the fact that Chinese workers are constructing everything at an fast pace, the pace is still not fast enough for this rapidly growing economy.

Now as for N'Djamena, I don't fully understand how it got to be number 3, but I can guess because of the lack of infrastructure and that it is in a landlocked country, getting anything of a international standard is beyond difficult (Angola has ports, roads, railroads and overall far better infrastructure, even though it's currently being redeveloped). Someone might have to explain this to me. Please?