According to the annual Winning in Growth Cities report from Cushman & Wakefield, which was launched yesterday at Munich's EXPO REAL trade fair, investors are being lured by ongoing risk and low global interest rates towards commercial property markets in core world cities. Most of the investment attracted over the course of the last year was in New York.
The top 25 world cities have actually strengthened their lead over the course of the last year, managing to increase their market share to 56% in comparison to just 46% three years ago in 2009. That being said, although this dominant group is likely to continue to be favored by investors because of its risk averse characteristics, the core world cities will face increasing competition in the future from a wide range of other cities, the report claims.
The highlights of the Cushman & Wakefield report include the fact that New York is the biggest worldwide investment market for the second year in a row, with volumes having risen by 18.9% to $34.7 billion in the year to the second quarter of 2012. In second place was London, with a 3.8% growth in investment volumes. Tokyo, Paris, LA and Hong Kong rounded out the top six.
"True global cities have gone from strength to strength in the past year, and the investment hierarchy is now well defined," says the president and global chief executive officer of Cushman & Wakefield, Glenn Rufrano.
