Expatriate Housing Data
Costs, conditions, and availability of housing in assignment locations around the world.
Housing decisions are emotional and costly. Determining how to compensate and provide for comfortable, safe accommodations for expatriates and their families can be a complicated process, involving comparison of housing costs in the home and assignment locations. ORC data clients receive location tables with information on home location housing costs (called “norms”) based on salary and family size. Housing data for assignment locations is supplied in the form of a matrix that provides rental costs by:
- type of housing unit (house/apartment, furnished/unfurnished, and number of bedrooms) and
- price category of expatriate-preferred neighborhoods
ORC issues updates every six months, in partnership with several outside sources. Housing data may be purchased on an as-needed basis by clients that do not receive goods and services data tables.
Housing information can also be supplied in customized formats with added factors. For example, data may be related to job level or type, salary, city area, or family size. ORC can work with your company to customize housing data to fit any need. In addition, housing data for locations not normally priced by ORC can be provided upon request.
Download a sample report here.
Housing norms, or the average combined expenditures for shelter and utilities by salary level, distinguishing between households of single persons and those of families of two or more persons, are covered in our Home-Country Data and Tax Profiles.
- Utilities consist of expenditures for fuel and light, as well as power for heating, air-conditioning, cooking, and operating home appliances.
- The shelter component consists of expenses for a primary dwelling, taking into account expenditures for both renters and owners: rent (plus utilities if included in rent) and any repairs charged to renters, mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, and repairs. The repayment of mortgage principal is a form of savings and, as such, is excluded
The results of our Survey of Expatriate Housing Policies and Practices are available also.