#RealtyNewsRoundup: Vienna Most Liveable City In the World, Says Mercer

For the 10th time in a row, Austria’s Vienna has been ranked as the best city to live in in Mercer’s Quality of Living (India) Rankings, 2019. While Zurich has been ranked number two in the list, the number three spot is shared by Auckland, Munich and Vancouver. In India, Hyderabad and Pune have been ranked the best cities to live in, and have been assigned the 143rd spot in the ranking. Indian cities of New Delhi (162), Mumbai (154) and Bengaluru (149) saw their rankings left unchanged from last year’s ranking for overall quality of living.

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A quarter of all premature deaths and diseases worldwide are due to manmade pollution and environmental damage, the United Nations said on March 13 in a landmark report on the planet's parlous state. Deadly smog-inducing emissions, chemicals polluting drinking water and the accelerating destruction of ecosystems crucial to the livelihoods of billions of people are driving a worldwide epidemic that hampers the global economy, it warned. The Global Environment Outlook (GEO) ─ six years of work that includes data analysis from 70 nations ─ depicts a growing chasm between rich and poor countries as rampant overconsumption, pollution and food waste in the developed world leads to hunger, poverty and disease elsewhere.

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According to a study, India’s real estate sector saw average size of budget apartments in major cities shrinking in the past five years by 17 per cent to match affordability. The highest shrinking in unit size was registered in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region at 27 per cent, followed by Kolkata at 23 per cent.

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To help cities become more productive, innovative and livable, the housing ministry has inaugurated a state-of-the-art India Urban Observatory in the national capital. The observatory will leverage data analytics to optimise city operations, improve governance and enhance economic performance of cities across India.

Source: Media reports