by Brianna Crandall — April 16, 2014—Cities are the new geography of commerce, according to JLL (formerly Jones Lang LaSalle). Whereas 10 years ago there were 100 cities on the investor’s radar, now there are 300 by JLL’s reckoning, and over 600 routinely enquired about by corporates. As rapid urbanization, technological and geopolitical change impact the momentum of cities, JLL has created a dynamic online site to help provide insight, intelligence and interpretation on future prospects for cities around the world.
The information on the site is intended for real estate investors, but also has an effect on those who manage real estate and who want to keep current on what is happening in their city or a city to which they may be interested in relocating.
The JLL Global 300 City Clustering Tool allows comparison of JLL’s top 300 cities for real estate activity across the globe, with “bubble” size representing various aspects.
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The Cities Research Center allows users to compare and contrast the top 300 cities across a range of factors, from current global real estate activity volumes to the speed of economic change. The latest reports from JLL experts assess city potential across the globe. Output from current work includes findings such as:
- The four “Super Cities”—London, New York, Paris and Tokyo—account for one-quarter of total commercial real estate investment of the Global 300 cities. They also have the deepest corporate bases.
- Several “transitional” cities such as Shanghai, Seoul and Beijing are attracting increasing real estate capital flows and corporate activity. Shanghai has strong potential to leapfrog to “Super City” status within the next few years.
- European cities are punching well above their weight in terms of cross-border real estate investment—London alone accounts for 15% of global activity. The USA has seen strong growth in investment in its second-tier cities. Real estate investment activity in Asia-Pacific is dominated by just 7 cities: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing and Sydney, which account for 70% of regional activity.
- San Francisco, London, Dubai, Shanghai and Wuhan are the world’s most dynamic cities according to JLL’s City Momentum Index.
- Research on Sub-Saharan African cities highlights Accra, Addis Ababa and Lagos to be among the world’s fastest-growing cities; Nairobi (Africa’s “Silicon Savannah”) is emerging as a regional powerhouse in technology; and Luanda is the world’s most expensive city to rent office space.
On the JLL Global 300 universe Commercial Attraction graphic, each city is represented by its share of commercial attraction.
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Rosemary Feenan, Head of Global Research at JLL, said, “The JLL Cities Research Center unites our firm-wide research expertise on cities in an engaging and accessible format. Data visualizations allow users to compare and contrast different cities, articles, and blogs, to gain opinion and insights into these dynamic spaces. The extensive international urban advisory experience of our Cities Research Center Chair, Greg Clark, adds further value to what we are confident will be an important addition to the understanding of the science of cities.”
The JLL Cities Research Center offers interactive graphic analyses with the JLL Global 300 City Clustering Tool , which allows comparison of JLL’s top 300 cities for real estate activity across the globe, with “bubble” size representing various characteristics, and the JLL Global 300 universe: Commercial Attraction graphic, on which each city is represented by its share of commercial attraction.
