The Very Best in Quality

Australia, Canada and Austria occupy three far-flung corners of the globe, but despite the huge distances between them, they all have one thing in common - the three countries rank top in quality of living surveys. As the best places to live in the world, cities like Vancouver, Vienna, Melbourne and Zurich may also be worth considering for property investment.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) published its world liveability ranking last week. Out of a total of 140 cities in the world, Canada and Australia dominate the top five. On the Canadian front, Vancouver comes top with Toronto and Calgary placed in fourth and fifth positions respectively. The Australian city of Melbourne ranks third and Perth comes in close behind in fifth spot. Europe's only top five representative is the Austrian capital, Vienna, in second place.

The EIU's liveability ranking looks at several main criteria including stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure, all benchmarks that Canada and Australia set exceptionally well. And consistently - Vancouver also topped the rankings in the liveability index in 2008.

The Mercer Quality of Living survey, also released recently, covers considerably more cities (380) but has broadly related criteria. This survey looks a multitude of factors including relationships with other countries, crime rate, medical and health considerations, banking and infrastructure. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Mercer 2009 survey has very similar findings to the EIU survey.

For Mercer, Vienna is the world's top city when it comes to quality living with two Swiss cities (Zurich and Geneva) in second and third positions. The EIU's Canadian favourite, Vancouver comes next in fourth, a place it shares with New Zealand's City of Sails, Auckland.

Australia and Canada have long featured among the favourites for property investment and also rank highly on the list of top relocation destinations, particularly with British expats. Property prices in the two countries experienced huge increases up to 2007, but have since seen a downturn, although both currently represent good value for the buyer. Vancouver offers the additional investment advantage of hosting next year's Winter Olympics.

Austria and Switzerland rarely appear on property investment radars, although both have well-established and stable property markets. However, house prices in their cities are high and rarely offer real opportunities except for those looking for long-term investments. On the other hand, the investor looking for a combination of steady investment and quality of life could do far worse than take a look at Vienna and Zurich.

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