A tale of two cities; Kuala Lumpur is a bargain for expats but locals are struggling to make ends meet.

Recent surveys rank Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur as the most affordable city in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) , with neighboring Singapore among the most expensive – if not the costliest – in the world.

The Malaysian capital may seem like a bargain for foreign business workers and travelers but locals complain of sharply rising costs, especially for food and property.

“I’ve got a 1,600-square foot apartment, three bedrooms,  swimming pool, two squash courts, a gymnasium, 24-hour security and I pay round about the equivalent to 500 pounds a month. Fuel price is a third of the price here as it is in the UK. Eating out is pretty cheap. I can still afford to save quite a lot of money,” Jake Mowson, a 30-year-old financial consultant from Britain, said. Mowson has few complaints about life in Kuala Lumpur, with its tropical climate and other perks.

Two recent international surveys ranked Kuala Lumpur as the cheapest city in Southeast Asia. The surveys looked at the cost of items such as food, drink, rent, transport, domestic help and private schools among others.

Both surveys were designed to help companies calculate cost-of-living allowances and salaries for their expatriate staff and business travelers. But it’s a very different reality for locals than for expats or high-end visitors.

Consumer sentiment and spending has dipped since the introduction of a goods and services tax two years ago, inflation is at an eight-year high and wages are not keeping up.

The average income per person has actually dropped about 15 percent over the past three years to around 735 US dollars a month. Property prices in the capital have surged out of reach, even for experienced professionals with university degrees, like Mohammed Hatta Kassim, an IT support officer who earns around 1,200 US dollars a month.

“For them it’s cheaper. But for me, for the local, it’s really a burden. Over the last two or three years, the explosion of the living costs has been 20 to 30 percent. It’s quite tough, I can say it’s really tough for me now.” said Kassim.

For expatriates, though, life here remains sweet. But in the current economic climate, the average local here will still struggle to accept the notion that the Malaysian capital is a cheap place to live.