By Marcel Lee Pereira

SINGAPORE is no longer in a list of the world's top 20 most liveable cities, as ranked by an international lifestyle
and global affairs magazine - a move which many have greeted with surprise.

In its inaugural quality of life survey last year, London-based magazine Monocle ranked Singapore at 17th spot. It was an achievement trumpeted by local media and politicians.

my paper obtained an advance copy of the article from Monocle yesterday, but it did not state any reason for Singapore's poorer ranking.

Monocle's survey, however, goes beyond housing costs and schools to include the possibility of getting a good glass of wine at 1am, the quality of new architecture and the ease of setting up a business.

Readers and industry experts my paper spoke to suggested that one factor could be the rising costs of living.

Sales executive Jeremy Yew, 28, said he was not surprised by the rankings. "It's understandable because of rising prices. It's more expensive to maintain a car and take public transport," he said.

But account manager Spencer Cheng, 30, said: "I thought we might make it further up this time, as there are a lot of green efforts going on. Maybe we lack natural beauty."

Denmark's Copenhagen took top spot, up from second place last year. It knocked off Germany's Munich, the top city last year, to second place. Tokyo, Japan?s capital, took third place.

Japanese cities Fukuoka and Kyoto took 17th and 20th places respectively, the only other Asian cities in the list.

marcelp@sph.com.sg

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