Shanghai among most prepared cities in Asia-Pacific
Shanghai is the third most prepared city in the Asia-Pacific, following Singapore and Melbourne, according to global real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield's inaugural "The Prepped Cities Index," which tracked 17 major business centers in the region based on a wide range of macroeconomic, structural, defensive and social indicators.
The index, designed to demonstrate areas of strength and weakness that cities are exposed to when encountering future uncertainties, looks at eight indicators, including rent volatility, governance, terrorism, talent, and cybersecurity.
"The index uses a combined approach of assessing both built environment and governance and environment factors to help identify which cities are best prepared in deterring and managing a crisis against future uncertainty," said Dominic Brown, head of research, Asia Pacific at Cushman & Wakefield.
"Given that real estate is a pillar of the regional economy, coupled with the massive amounts of investment in the built environment, the real estate industry can directly play a role in making cities better prepared for the future."
Topping the list as the region's most prepared city, Singapore has ranked in the top two places on three out of the eight indicators, namely sustainability, governance and cybersecurity.
Melbourne has a strong showing across the majority of categories but a lack of new quality office supply to replenish ageing stock and a raft of political changes over the past decade have jointly led it to second place.
"All five Chinese cities we have investigated – Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong – ranked among the Top 10, a demonstration of their strength in preparedness to future uncertainties," said James Shepherd, managing director of China Research at Cushman & Wakefield.
"Shanghai performed exceptionally well as it outshone all the other cities in terms of real estate preparedness, boasting low rent volatility and a robust pipeline of new office supply."
