London has been named as the number one spot for real estate investments, closely followed by Paris and Amsterdam.
The Swiss Life Asset Managers’ European Thematic Cities Index 2021 measures European cities against five core city themes that quantify a city’s ability to address structural trends, including dynamism, healthiness, networks, cosmopolitanism and accessibility.
The index provides an overall ranking for 137 European cities from 29 countries based on 49 attributes, which can be split into five sub-indices representing each of the five themes.
Stefan Mächler, chief investment officer at Swiss Life, said: “The score includes many smaller cities and takes potential for further strengthening in core themes into account, which is particularly useful for a forward-looking investor.
“We currently invest in real estate projects in 31 out of the top 40 cites of the 2021 ranking and the high scores of Nordic cities support our ambition to increase our presence in this market.”
London ranked first in the dynamism, networks, and cosmopolitanism. Amsterdam ranked second overall, with very high healthiness which supports the wellbeing of its citizens and strong networks that mirror its business clusters.
Paris took the third spot with the second highest score for dynamism because of its solid economics.
Countries such as Gjón, Brno and Grenada were bottom of the table. According to the company, the cities are not unattractive for real estate investment, rather they lend themselves to tailored strategies to enhance performance and protect the downside.
The European Thematic Cities Index also includes 24 UK cities, 20 of which rank in the top half of the overall European ranking. London, Manchester, and Edinburgh are the highest thematically ranked UK cities.
The index serves as a tool for asset managers to support long-term real estate investment strategy decisions. Investors can also allocate capital to thematically stronger cities that are expected to outperform.
Giles King, CEO at Mayfair Capital, said: “Thematically driven investment is one of our key strengths at Mayfair Capital. This purely data-driven index is a great add on to our real estate expertise. Combined with other information and qualitative assessments, it will help us navigate through the rapid structural changes that impact the demand for real estate.”
Alongside this, there is also a focus on environmental sustainability which can lead to a prioritisation of cities with higher ecological credentials by weighing healthier cities more heavily.
Investors can use the index to review their current portfolios and determine their exposure to cities best aligned to structural change.
Swiss Life Asset Managers has over 160 years’ experience managing the assets of the Swiss Life Group. Its third-party clients span Switzerland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the UK. As of 30 June 2021, assets under management for third-party clients amounted to CHF 98.9 billion.
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