In the 25th edition of the European Cities Growth Index (ECGI), London emerged as the winner.
The ECGI is an annual scorechart of property demand in urban metropolises across the continent. It is conducted by real estate investment manager LaSalle Investment Management. It factors in a range of socio-economic indices to help determine its rankings for each city. In this year’s chart, London was the winner in part because it offered notable total employment growth. As such it offered the highest ‘human capital’ score in Europe.
Elsewhere in the UK, those interested in investment planning in Cheshire may be interested to learn that the North West also performed well. The Manchester-Liverpool conurbation was part of the 12 UK city regions that were classed as ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’.
Analysts have commented that cities with a strong commitment to defence investment did well at a time of escalating geopolitical tensions. With European governments increasing military budgets, city regions with a strong security commitment are poised to benefit. Another driver is climate change and energy security. These are continuing to have an impact on European property markets. Those cities with the ability to adapt to both a new defence spending regime and the ongoing pressures of climate change are the ones best placed to reshape Europe’s urban hierarchy in the years to come.
Dan Mahoney, Europe Head of Research and Strategy at LaSalle offered some additional thoughts. He said that it is now urgently necessary to incorporate factors like these alongside traditional indicators in any league table ranking different cities.
