Expensive City in Indonesia
What is the most expensive city to live in Indonesia? Nope, it’s not Jakarta. It’s Balikpapan. That’s the result of Living Cost Survey 2008 conducted by Mercer Indonesia which was released last week.
This survey was conducted in 26 major cities during the period of July 2008, two months after SBY decided to raise the fuel price. Jakarta as capital city used as a reference, so it has 100 points. Every other cities have points in reference to Jakarta.
The survey covers several living cost categories which include: food/sembako, transportations, utilizations, housing, educations, health, entertainment, and sport. In the category of entertainment and sport, Jakarta has many more points or index compare to the rest.
Here’s the complete list:
1. Balikpapan 107
2. Jakarta 100
3. Bekasi 94
4. Samarinda 94
5. Bogor 92
6. Jayapura 91
7. Pekanbaru 90
8. Bandung 89
9. Batam 89
10. Medan 89
11. Padang 88
12. Manado 88
13. Semarang 86
14. Palembang 85
15. Banjarmasin 85
16. Pontianak 84
17. Tangerang 84
18. Cilegon 84
19. Makassar 84
20. Jogjakarta 84
21. Surabaya 83
22. Jambi 81
23. Cirebon 81
24. Denpasar 80
25. Bandar Lampung 75
26. Mataram 75
Batam ranked at #9 with the same points/index as Bandung and Medan. To be honest I’m not really sure about this. Special for food and entertainment, I believe Batam is more expensive than Bandung. Maybe Bandung has higher points in housing as the property price is relatively higher there compare to Batam.
So where do you want to live now? If this survey is valid enough, I think I’m quite interested to find a job in Denpasar and live there. Relatively cheap living cost with so many bikinis 
—————————————
Thx to bung Lievan who forwarded this article.
Pic taken from here
Rasanya..biaya hidup di Batam lebih mahal ketimbang Pekanbaru, deh…
How come, ya ? Kok bisa gitu ?
ga tau juga nih Put. Apa karena faktor yg dinilai banyak banget melebihi yg kita bayangin yah
i tot so, Denpasar would be great, not only the cheap living cost.. yes, feels like holiday everyday
bikinis, gis? owh pleaseeeee
actually it’s bikinis what makes it feels like holiday
I’d prefer to live in Yogya no matter what he..he
Yeah I think Batam should has better ranking, no 4 maybe
hehe yeah Yogya is a nice place to live too
Denpasar for sure will be my first preference, where else u can get ‘everyday is holiday’ atmosphere, foods, entertainment and accommodation ranging from affordable to likely unaffordable price
. However, for career and making money? lots of people prefer to live in Jakarta. Me? still DENPASAR! viva Denpasar! 
hehe i actually wonder how much is the salary range and job opportunities there in denpasar. If it’s good than maybe it’s worth to try
hm…what about purwakarta?, the poorest maybe
purwakarta? not sure bro. If the town have enough jobs and cheap living cost then it’s good
aku dah pernah baca di blognya sapaaaa gitu.lupa. and masih gak yakin batam urutan 9.soale jajan di batam lbh mahal rek dr jkt. selaen UMR di batam lbh tinggi khan ?
cuma ya gak tau gimana pertimbangannya.
ho’oh setuju. Kyknya kalo mudik ke pulau jawa semuanya jadi terasa murah hehe
Sengtuju dengan yang udah2,masa’ Batam no.9?
Di sini semua muahal, so..if you ask me “So where do you want to live now?”
I think di kampung emak aja, lebih enak
hehe nothing can beat our own kampung. Agree bro
salam kenal om…met lebaran
salam kenal juga dik. Taqaballahu minna wa minkum
aarrghh just have to make more money so we can live anywhere we want
hehe yes mas Jimmy, totally agree.
Wah baru tau aku ini.. padahal aku pingin ngunjungin temenku di Balikpapan.. gak jadi aja deh hehe..
huehehe bisa aja lo pren. Btw, kalo ngunjungin temen bukannya semua expense ditanggung ama yg dikunjungin ya huehehe
wo’ o’ oo….. surprised!
so far in my mind the most expensive city is batam and bali.
That’s why the SPJ — actually its a term for accommodation fees for our engineers for traveling to these places are much more higher than standard fees.
However most of our non Jakarta’s customers in Bali and many others in Batam, hopefully our HRD never know this info. Therefore our engineers will do their jobs with ……. tetap semangaaaat!..
hehehehe bisa aja lo bro. Yup, hopefully they know nothing about this survey
he he ….. barusan gw dah tanya’in, ternyata SPJ buat blkpp udah lama disamakan dg batam dan bali
hehehe brarti rugi yg di balikpapan ya bro. Hrsnya lebih tinggi lagi tuh
Wah balikpapan yah, ngga nyangka, kirain Batam ^o^
hehe iya sama gue pikir juga begitu
sori on, gw terpaksa komen lagi. abisnya, ga tahan nih om
mata gw sampe mblalak2 baca jawabannya buat pengomen pertama diatas, kok … ….. bisa2 nya kepikir kayak gitu ya?? ck ck ck……..
heran, gimana blajarnya biar bisa mikir kayak gitu yah? wah wah……. gw musti blajar banyak nie. beneran, asli sli!
huehehe bisa aja lo pren. Jadi malu gue nih
Biasa aja koq pren, itu cuman hasil nebak2x hehe
Well tell me about it, baru aja soale awal tahun ini survey2 living cost di BPN termasuk house rent dan standard gaji… Ternyata emank mahal bener euy… standard gajinya pun lebi tinggi di sana, even the international school is twice higher than we have here…
wah kenapa bisa begitu yah. Apa karena banyak perusahaan besar nongkrong di sana. Kalo gitu mestinya kotanya juga bakal ikutan terangkat ya fasilitasnya. Makanya jadi mahal. Jadi pengen ke sono
Tegal g tercantum ya mas…:)
hehe jgn sampe tercantum. Masak tegal masuk list kota termahal
oh ya gw kepikiran pernah ngomenin komen lo, ternyata lo emang paling suse dipuji.
ga ad matinye
ga kayak orang jawa biasa: “dipangku” langsung mati
mungkin krn gue kagak demen “dipangku” pren, lebih suka “memangku” huehehehe
hey git,
i think ones’ living cost is related to (but not limited to) his/her life style and their specific location in a city.. for instance, you should differ the living cost at duta mas and bengkong (batam areas), shouldn’t you?
thus, it would be great if they would narrow down their research to more specific areas of those cities.. hmmm, any volunteer to gather the sample?
hehe I guess basically you’re right my friend. There’re also some variations between places in the same city. But perhaps people wouldn’t care that much. They can easily move to other places they consider cheapest inside the city. Most people more concern about the city because once they moved in they just can’t moved out right away. Hehe maybe you’ll do it. Starts from Bengkong obviously hehehehe