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Numerous commercial real estate firms and other companies publish lists of the leading global cities. Some rankings focus on particular niche industries (like commercial real estate or banking/finance) while others evaluate various quality-of-life factors (such as access to culture, healthcare, etc.) or attempt to include multiple factors into a single, comprehensive ranking.
To reach their conclusions, publishers of these lists may rely on macroeconomic data and growth projections, while others lean more heavily upon survey-based data. Different methodologies generate different results.
As global real estate practitioners, it’s important to be aware of any valuable sources of data that can help you and your clients make better decisions. To help you identify some of the best research sources, we’ve summarized five recent contenders—a list of lists.
The information contained in the following reports, and others, can be helpful in understanding and identifying real estate investment opportunities from a macro perspective. (Plus, each one listed here is free!)
Global Cities:The Future of Real Estate in the World’s Leading Cities
Primary focus:Real estate investment and commercial occupiers
This 80-page report offers a comprehensive examination of the outlook for real estate in 21 of the leading business cities, plus a Watch List of five cities set to play a bigger role in coming years—all organized in an attractive magazine format that makes extensive and effective use of companion graphics (sample below).
A common theme among the featured cities is new infrastructure development. Airports, railways, port facilities and power stations will reshape business districts, housing, shopping and leisure facilities. Real estate plays a key role in each of these endeavors. Knight Frank’s latest report aims to be a useful tool in helping participants spot opportunities.
It features city profiles, regional dashboards, and detailed discussions of several themes, including the future of office spaces, capital markets trends, flexible apartments for relocated workers, key retail trends, and more.
Access the 2016 report: knightfrank.com/globalcities
Global Cities: Index/Outlook
Primary focus: Comprehensive ranking
The latest edition (2015) of ATKearney’s report examines 125 cities, in terms of their ability to attract and retain global capital, people and ideas, as well as their future prospects. Two rankings are provided:
Global Cities Index: an assessment of a city’s current performance across five dimensions: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement.
Global Cities Outlook: a projection of a city’s future potential based on four dimensions: rate of change in personal well-being, economics, innovation, and governance.
Sixteen “Global Elite” cities appear in the top 25 of both lists. New York and London are the only two cities among the top 10 of each list.
Access the 2018 report: atkearney.com/research-studies/global-cities-index/2018
Global Financial Centres Index
Primary focus: Competitiveness of financial centres
Originally published by Z/Yen Group, now managed by Long Finance, the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) provides profiles, ratings and rankings for 86 financial centres. Sixteen additional cities are actively being researched and will join the index once they receive a sufficient number of assessments.
The index is calculated using both instrumental factors (105 factors measuring business environment, financial sector development, infrastructure, human capital, and reputational and general factors) and an ongoing survey of international financial services professionals.
The GFCI is updated every three months; findings are published every six months (March and September); the most current release is GFCI 19.
Access the March 2016 report (GFCI 19): longfinance.net/global-financial-centre-index-19/992-gfci-19.html
World’s Most Competitive Cities
Primary focus: Corporate expansion and business site selection
Conway—the longtime publisher of Site Selection magazine and provider of integrated services for crossborder corporate investments—partnered with Moody’s Analytics, Tractus, and Oxford Economics to publish the 2015 edition of The World’s Most Competitive Cities.
At the center of the report is the Conway Projects Database, which tracks private-sector corporate facility investments (of at least $1 million invested, 20 new jobs created, or at least 20,000 sq. ft. of new workspace). Added to this data are metropolitan area-level economic indicators and unique, real-world perspectives on the attractiveness of certain locations for investment.
The report is arranged by 12 business sectors that are among the most important to the world economy:
- Aerospace
- Automotive
- Business & financial services
- Chemicals & plastics
- Electronics
- Energy
- Food & beverage
- IT & communications
- Life sciences
- Machinery, equipment
- & construction
- Metals
- Transportation & logistics
Access the 2015 report: http://siteselection.epubxp.com/i/592128-2015
City Momentum Index:The Rise of the Innovation-Oriented City
Primary focus: Commercial real estate
The City Momentum Index (CMI) tracks the speed of change of a city’s economy and commercial real estate market, identifying cities with the most dynamic urban economies and most rapidly adapting to transformations in technology and infrastructure.
Covering 120 major established and emerging business hubs, the CMI captures the dynamics of a city’s real estate market—its rates of construction and absorption, price movement and the attraction of a city’s built environment for cross-border capital and corporations. It is based on 37 variables covering 10 topics.
CMI’s current Top 20 list is overwhelmingly dominated by innovation-rich cities. In addition to summarizing developments around the world, the report claims that city stakeholders are increasingly aware of the importance of real estate in attracting corporations and talent via smart and productive commercial buildings.
Access the 2016 report: jll.com/research/165/city-momentum-index-2016
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