A privilege to live here

ENAR

Beirut is in the global top 10 when it comes to upscale expatriate rental costs and in the top third for the cost of offices, according to survey results cited last month by Byblos Bank’s “Lebanon This Week” (LTW). EuroCost International, a French consulting firm that surveys expatriate living costs in some 170 locations worldwide and has been doing this survey for five years, declared Beirut to be the eighth most-pricey place to rent an apartment of all the cities listed in its annual survey of house rental costs for 2012, as reported by the LTW. Better-known real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield ranked Lebanon’s capital as the 24th priciest office market of 63 monitored cities — both surveys showed Beirut as the Middle East’s most expensive locale. Cushman & Wakefield bases its assessment of Beirut on office prices in the Beirut central district. EuroCost said it zooms in only