C&W European Cities Monitor 2008: London, Paris and Frankfurt the best business locations in Europe

7 Oct, 2008, Frankfurt

Frankfurt the third most popular European location for the past 19 years
• Brussels now in the Top Five
• Clear endorsement of Germany as a location
• Many companies’ sights set on Moscow
• Düsseldorf up four places
• Barcelona the city with the best quality of living

For the 19th consecutive occasion, London, Paris and Frankfurt have been voted the best business locations in Europe, as concluded by this year’s “European Cities Monitor 2008” study conducted by Cushman & Wakefield (C&W). Also in the top five most popular locations were Brussels which rose from sixth to fourth place and Barcelona which climbed to fifth place. The highest climbers in the ranking of the most popular locations for companies in Europe were Zurich which rose from 13th to 10th place, Düsseldorf rising from 16th to 12th place and Manchester climbing from 18th to 14th place. Hamburg was another German high-flyer in 17th place (20th in 2007). Many companies see Moscow as an important location for expansion.

Property portfolio managers and location strategists from the top levels of the 500 largest European firms were interviewed for the European Cities Monitor. A variety of factors were taken into account for the ranking including transport links, telecommunications, access to markets, office space costs, qualified staff and quality of living. London, which was number one in the overall ranking, scored top marks for twelve of these location factors. Brussels scored highly for its geographic and political position at the heart of Europe. The EU and NATO have their headquarters here, contributing indirectly to the relative economic stability enjoyed by the Belgian capital.
Germany, which is home to a quarter of all European top 20 locations, was by far the most popular country. “There can be no a clearer endorsement of Germany as a location”, states Martin Brühl, Managing Partner at C&W Germany, giving his opinion of the study’s results. “Five German cities are among the top 20 most popular European locations for companies: Frankfurt in third place, Berlin in eighth place, Munich in ninth place, climber Dusseldorf in 12th place (up from 16th in 2007) and Hamburg in 17th place (up from 20th in 2007).”

Most popular business locations in Europe, 2008

Location	2008 Rank	2007 Rank	1990 Rank
London	1	1	1
Paris	2	2	2
Frankfurt	3	3	3
Brussels	4	6	4
Barcelona	5	4	11
Amsterdam	6	5	5
Madrid	7	7	17
Berlin	8	8	15
Munich	9	9	12
Zurich	10	13	7
Geneva	11	12	8
Dusseldorf	12	16	6
Milan	13	10	9
Manchester	14	18	13
Dublin	15	11	-
Lisbon	16	15	16
Hamburg	17	20	14
Lyon	18	17	18
Prague	19	14	23
Stockholm	20	22	19
Birmingham	21	21	-
Budapest	22	23	21
Copenhagen	23	25	-
Warsaw	24	19	25
Rome	25	27	-
Vienna	26	24	20
Glasgow	27	26	10
Leeds	28	30	-
Istanbul	29	-	-
Helsinki	30	29	-
Bucharest	31	28	-
Moscow	32	31	24
Oslo	33	32	-
Athens	34	33	22

The most important factors when choosing a location

Factor	2008 %	2007 %
Availability of qualified staff	60	62
Easy access to markets, customers or clients	59	58
The quality of telecommunications	54	55
Transport links with other cities and internationally	53	52
Cost of staff	40	36
The climate governments create for business through tax policies or financial incentives	27	27
Languages spoken	27	27
Value for money of office space	26	26
Ease of travelling around within the city	25	24
Availability of office space	24	26
The quality of life for employees	21	21
Freedom from pollution	18	16

In 2008, qualified employees were once again the most important factor in choosing a location. This was followed in the ranking of the most significant factors by easy access to markets and customers, quality of telecommunications, good transport links and employee costs. With the exception of employee costs (here Warsaw was in first place, Bucharest in second place and Budapest in third place) London, Paris and Frankfurt took the first three places in these critical categories.
However, one German city took first place in two categories this year: Berlin is the best European location for office space and is the best city for expatriates.
The city which had made the greatest improvement since last year was Barcelona. Last year, Madrid was still ahead of the field.
The most important place for expansion within Europe and for the next five years was Moscow. In terms of expansion outside Europe, Shanghai is high on strategists’ lists of priorities.

Qualified staff Germany’s trump card

“Among the ten European locations with the highest numbers of qualified staff available to companies, the top five are in Germany”, adds Mr Brühl. “This is a further clear indication that German is better than its reputation suggests”.
“As in other countries, it appears that little will change in Germany in terms of the positioning of the major cities in the popularity ranking in the next few years”, states Inga Schwarz, researcher at C&W Germany. “However, we should not forget that regional centres throughout Europe are gaining in importance and appeal for larger companies owing to their cost-conscious business climate and ‘soft factors’ such as quality of living.”

Green Building

This year’s European Cities Monitor also looked at the topic of sustainability for the first time. 15% of those questioned stated that their company owns or has leased a sustainable building, 45% do not use a sustainable building but are susceptible to the idea, and 32% do not use a sustainable building and are not interested in doing so.
For 35% of those questioned, the most important aspects of a green building were reductions in energy and water consumption whereas 13% stated that lower running costs were the priority.
11% of all companies regarded the most important factor in opting for “pro green building” as being the improved travel planning offered by such business locations.
There are currently still many barriers to relocating to green buildings. 19% of all those questioned stated that the poor availability of sustainable properties is a major impediment, for 17%, it takes too long for their investments in sustainable buildings to pay off, 16% state that rents are too high in comparison with standard buildings and 15% are not entirely sure what the criteria for a sustainable building are.

Free ECM download

The study can be downloaded free of charge from the C&W Knowledge Center at: http://www.cushmanwakefield.com/cwglobal/jsp/kcLanding.jsp?Country=DE&Language=DE&pageType=null&lhsImgAltKey=null&lhsImg=null

Study Details

The study has been conducted on an annual basis since 1990 and published by C&W. Employees at the top management levels of the 500 largest European firms were questioned. The survey was conducted in June and July 2008 by TNS (Taylor Nelson Sofres).

back to real estate News & Events

Printer Friendly Version

Contact Us

For further information, please contact:

Susanne Weber
+49 69 50 60 73 - 365

More contacts