The accolade comes from global property consultant Cushman and Wakefield, which compiles the annual European Cities Monitor.
Now in its 22nd year, the European Cities Monitor is based on interviews with board directors in charge of location for the 501 largest companies in Europe. It positions 36 cities against overall rankings of which European city is considered to be ‘best for business’ as well as the ‘best city in which to locate a business today’ in addition to a number of specific criteria.
Once again London, Paris and Frankfurt remain the top three cities for doing business, and this has not changed since the survey was first undertaken in 1990. What has changed th ough is the order of the top five with Amsterdam and Berlin replacing Barcelona and Brussels, who have slipped to 6th and 8th place respectively.
London has retained its top ranking in terms of familiarity as a business location, but second placed Paris continues to close the gap.
The biggest mover this year was Bucharest, which rose up the ranking by eight places to 27th, while Rome saw the greatest fall from 28th to 35th place. Zurich moved back into the top 10 for the first time since 2008, while Düsseldorf gave up the gains it made last year by moving back to 14th place on the ranking.
London retained its top ranking in six of the 12 major categories, including ‘Transport links with other cities and internationally’, ‘Ease of travelling within the city’, ‘Easy access to markets, customers or clients’ and ‘Availability of quality staff’ and ‘Quality of telecommunications’ and ‘Languages spoken’ but it has slipped six places to 10th in the ranking for ‘availability of office space’.
In addition, London continues to be attractive to a broad range of property investors from around the globe due to its stability, transparency and legal framework, all of which ensure that the process of investing is relatively straight forward. Prime central London property is the top choice for many investors who view the capital as a safe haven.
London real estate is an unique asset class t where demand will remain strong for the best properties in the best areas.
