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Archive for the ‘Surveys’ Category

Swiss Economy Most Competitive in the World

Swiss-franc-on-Swiss-flag

The economies of the world’s nations are ranked by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in terms of how competitive they are, releasing the results in a yearly Global Competitiveness Report. The Forum attempts to map out which of the world’s economies are most competitive and this year’s report contains more countries than ever before, offering data on 142 economies and thus remaining the most comprehensive document of its kind in the world.

But the report defines competitiveness in vague terminology.  Unfortunately, crisply definable figures like GDP or unemployment figures can’t give a clear idea of a concept like competitiveness. The report’s authors define competitiveness as ‘the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country’ and go on to explain that there are twelve ‘pillars of competitiveness:’ Institutions, Infrastructure, Macroeconomic Environment, Health and Primary Education, Higher Education and Training, Goods Market Efficiency, Labour Market Efficiency, Financial Market Development, Technological Readiness, Market Size, Business Sophistication, and Innovation. While it’s obvious that complex, dynamic concepts require multiple inputs – the reasoning behind using the quality-of-life index rather than simple GDP/person type economic measurements in assessing how genuinely prosperous a nation is, for instance -  the report sometimes seems to fall into the trap of defining one nebulous concept in terms of another. The section explaining the Ninth Pillar, Technological Readiness, begins with the words, ‘in today’s globalized world,’ a phrase calculated to imply that the author has run out of things to say while there is still some paper left.  The odd fragment of waffle notwithstanding, the authors go on to make a serious attempt to define the way technological readiness contributes to an economy’s competitiveness. They stress the importance of ICT, referring to Manuel Trajtenberg’s concept of a ‘general purpose technology’ (like the steam engine) which comes to organize economic activity around itself.

Top 10 Cities In The World by Reputation – 2012

The Reputation Institute has produced its list of 2012’s top cities by reputation.  According to Reptrak, ‘RepTrak™ destination studies dive deep into the emotional bond between stakeholders and destinations by quantifying the degree to which people Trust, Admire, Respect and have an Affinity for a city or country.’ The company based its figures on a model that uses three groups of information: direct experience, what the city itself says and does, and what others say about the city.  In turn, the company measures three outcomes: advanced economy, appealing environment and effective government.  Thirteen categories, including ‘beautiful city’ and The data came from an online survey of the general public of G8 countries, and only those respondents who described themselves as ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ familiar with the cities mentioned had their responses included.  The survey was conducted in April and May of 2012, asking 18, 000 people.

RepTrak argues that their data indicate that reputation directly translates into ‘hard’ benefits: according to the company, ‘a 5 point increase in place Reputation leads to 12% increase in Tourism Receipts and 7% increase in direct foreign investment.’ The Reputation Institute has published its list of the top ten cities in the world by reputation. Unlike liveability reports, the RepTrak report is intended to show how cities look in the eyes of the world.  The company covered three bases of a city’s reputation, advanced economy, appealing environment and effective government, to build a picture of a city as it appears in the eyes of the world.  Across April and May of 2012, 18, 000 people were polled from the G8 countries’ general public, and the result is below: the top ten cities in the world by reputation.

2010 Wealth Report: Prime Property Back on the Menu

knightfrank-wealthreport2010

Knight Frank, in conjunction with Citibank has just released its 2010 Wealth Report. The 25 page PDF document confirms what we have already pieced together from multiple reports as 2009 progressed from the first quart throughout the second half:

Prime property — which suffered last at the hands of the financial crisis, but suffered just as hard –experienced a rebound in many locations in 2009, while many more (71% according to the report) locations continued to suffer.

Knight Frank Global House Price Index – Quarter 2 2009

A summary of the findings of this index are as follows:

  • House prices increased in nearly half of the reporting countries, suggesting a possible recovery may be on the horizon
  • The quarterly drop in house prices worsened in fewer than 25% of these locations
  • Israel is the top performer from 2Q 2008 to 2Q 2009, with an annual increase in house prices of 12.5%
  • Taken quarterly, Norway saw the largest increase from Q1 2009 of 5.3%
  • Dubai was the biggest loser over the year, dropping 47%, and was second worst on a quarterly basis, losing 7.5% from Q1 2009

Liam Bailey, head of residential research for Knight Frank has assessed the data and takes the following from it:

City Ranking Of Worldwide Living Costs 2009

Mercer’s latest Cost of Living Survey for Worldwide Cities has seen some changes from last year. In a flash overview, Tokyo is now officially the world’s most expensive city to live in for expats. Johannesburg is the cheapest. The top ten are dominated by European and Asian cities, while a major reshuffle took place thanks to currency fluctuations.

UK’s London dropped a massive 13 ranks to position 16 and New York has now joined the top ten. Here are the top ten at a glance:

Rank 2009 Rank 2008 City Country Index 2009 Index 2008

1

2

TOKYO

JAPAN

143.7

127

2

11

OSAKA

JAPAN

119.2

110

3

1

MOSCOW

RUSSIA

115.4

142.4

4

8

GENEVA

SWITZERLAND

109.2

115.8

5

6

HONG KONG

HONG KONG

108.7

117.6

6

9

ZURICH

SWITZERLAND

105.2

112.7

7

7

COPENHAGEN

DENMARK

105.0

117.2

8

22

NEW YORK CITY

US

100.0

100.0

9

20

BEIJING

CHINA

99.6

101.9

10

13

SINGAPORE

SINGAPORE

98.0

109.1

Mercer’s 2009 Global City Rankings Results

mercer-consulting

The latest global rankings survey by Mercer shows that the best places to live worldwide according to their survey are Switzerland, Germany, Canada and Austria. Being featured several times in the "top 20 cities to live in" each of these countries is present not once, but several times.

Top World Cities For Billionaires

Columbus Circle New york

The billionaire capital of the world is New York City according to Forbes latest posting of the top cities for billionaires. With 55 billionaires, New York reigns number one even after losing 16 billionaires since last years rating.

London Landlords Face Bleak Rent Outlook

row-of-houses-bedford-row-holborn-london

London landlords are facing a tough time attracting tenants as a record number of properties are flooding the market, according to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

The best-presented property is still finding tenants – but only if the landlords charge a competitive or discounted rent.

Latest Global Office Space Rental Report by Cushman & Wakefield

The latest annual Cushman & Wakefield Office Space Report takes a look at the world’s commercial markets and gives us a comprehensive overview on office costs all around the globe enabling companies to determine lucrative markets.

global-top-ten-best-performing-locations2008

Special Report: Outlook on the Stability of the Colombian Real Estate Market

Bogota City, Colombia

This report analyzes data provided by Colombia’s Central Bank (El Banco de la Republica) as well as information taken from the DANE (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadisticas), Colombia’s Superintendencia Financiera, and the DNP (Departamento Nacional de Planeacion).

We hope to provide a realistic picture on the Colombian real estate market and it’s potential for growth in both the short term as well as the long term level.