Four of the ten most popular European locations for business are in Germany

4 Oct, 2010, Frankfurt

• London in first, Paris second and Frankfurt third place as the most popular sites in Europe
• Berlin comes fifth, Munich ninth and Düsseldorf tenth on the popularity scale
• Fastest climber is Vienna
• Moscow tops the list for expansion
• Easy access to markets and customers is the important decision factor

Four German cities: Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich and Düsseldorf are among the Top Ten most popular locations in Europe. No other country contains this many top locations.
For the 21st time since the beginning of the annual study “European Cities Monitor”, Frankfurt am Main has once more gained the third place this year. As in the previous years, London and Paris take positions one and two. Berlin has been able to climb two places, and is now in position seven. This means that the federal capital has taken this place from the Bavarian state capital Munich. This year Munich is in ninth place. The fastest climber among the German locations is Dusseldorf. The “city on the Rhine” has moved up from 15th to tenth place. This year Hamburg has fallen three places, but in spite of this, the Hanseactic metropolis still manages 15th place in a total of 36 locations.
“Out of the ten most popular business locations in Europe, almost half - Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich and Düsseldorf – are in Germany. This impressive result means that Germany as an commercial property location wins high marks as an economy that offers high performance and adaptability in times of crisis - and a political context to match”, comments Martin Brühl, Managing Partner of Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) in Germany.

Every year C&W arranges for senior location executives in the top management of the 500 largest European companies to be contacted for its “European Cities Monitor”. The telephone interviews about “Europe’s best business location” are carried out by an independent opinion polling organization. The ranking of the 36 most popular locations is calculated from a scoring system covering various factors, such as market access, communications links, telecommunications, cost of office space, quality and cost of personnel.

Fastest climber: Vienna

In this years’ popularity poll, Brussels again managed to push in front of Barcelona to gain fourth place.
The fastest climber in this years’ ranking list is Vienna: it heaved itself up six places to position 22. The biggest decline was experienced by Rome, which fell from position 22 to 28.

Moscow is the most important expansion destination, Berlin has been the most active in the competition for international locations

In the listing of the surveyed managers with regard to expansion inside Europe, 49 companies stated that they wanted to expand into Moscow in the next 5 years (2009: 35 companies).
Those questioned named Berlin as the economic location, which is making the biggest efforts to gain an even stronger position in the international competition for locations. The federal capital is the leader for one further location criterion: it is maintaining its top position for the availability of office space.
In the opinion of the expansion strategists, key player London is the leader in a wide range of location categories. For them, London is the location that has the best transport links, both nationally and internationally, offers the easiest access to markets and customers, has the highest availability of qualified manpower, has the best offer in telecommunications and, by no means least important, where the most foreign languages are spoken. When it comes to the lowest personnel costs, Warsaw is No. 1. Dublin is the leader with regard to the most positive government climate, and Stockholm has gained the first place in the assessment of cities with the lowest air pollution.

Access to markets and customers is the most important location criterion

One very important criterion for deciding about a particular location was stated to be easy access to markets and customers. The availability of a qualified workforce follows in second place. Third and fourth places in the evaluation scale the quality of the telecommunications offer, and national and international transport links. Fifth place is occupied by the price-performance ration of office space.

The German Top 5 are still performing well

“The top German locations are still performing well”, says Inga Schwarz, Research manager for Cushman & Wakefield in Germany. “All the locations have been able to maintain or even improve their evaluation score. That is a powerful signal in these economically unstable times, and confirms just how successfully the major German cities continue to hold their positions among the tough international position. However, the results of the current European Cities Monitor also give a warning that no one should slacken off in their endeavours and exertions: The Competition never sleeps. Cities such as Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan and Manchester visibly piled on the pressure during the last year.”

The Study can be downloaded free of charge from: http://www.europeancitiesmonitor.eu/

The ten most popular business locations in Europe 2010

Rank 2010 (2009)	City
1. (1)	London
2. (2)	Paris
3. (3)	Frankfurt
4. (5)	Brussels
5. (4)	Barcelona
6. (8)	Amsterdam
7. (9)	Berlin
8. (6)	Madrid
9. (7)	Munich
10. (15)	Düsseldorf

Source: European Cities Monitor 2010 Cushman & Wakefield

The most popular business locations in Germany 2010

Location	2010	2009	1990
Frankfurt	3	3	3
Berlin	7	9	15
Munich	9	7	12
Dusseldorf	10	15	6
Hamburg	15	12	14

Source: European Cities Monitor 2010 Cushman & Wakefield

The most popular business locations within Europe’s German-speaking region 2010

Location		2010	2009	1990
Frankfurt		3	3	3
Berlin		7	9	15
Munich	9		7	12
Dusseldorf		10	15	6
Zurich		13	13	7
Geneva		14	11	8
Hamburg		15	12	14
Vienna		22	28	20

Source: European Cities Monitor 2010 Cushman & Wakefield

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