Madrid and Barcelona are among the top ten European cities for locating a business in a ranking chosen by executives in the European Union. The ranking is still headed by London, Paris, Frankfurt and Brussels according to this annual report entitled 'XIX European Cities Monitor', drawn up by the real estate consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Barcelona is in fifth place in the ranking and Madrid is seventh behind Amsterdam, the position it has held since 2005. Barcelona is considered the European city with the best quality of life and is third in terms of hotel accommodation.
Many cities have changed their position this year; Brussels has moved up to fourth from sixth in 2007; Amsterdam returns to the sixth position it held in 2006 having moved up one place last year; Zurich returns to tenth place as in 2006 having fallen to thirteenth last year; and Berlin and Munich have held on to eighth and ninth places respectively.
60% of the top executives of companies are first and foremost interested in the available workforce when considering changing the location of their offices; 59% feel market access is the most important factor; and 54% consider it to be the quality of telecommunications.
London, Paris and Frankfurt in this order head the list of cities with the easiest access to markets, the highest availability of qualified personnel and the best quality telecommunications.
Leading the efforts to make progress
Barcelona and Madrid are also at the top of the ranking of cities making the greatest efforts to forge ahead as business hubs, followed by Prague and Budapest. Valencia is at the other end of the scale in this list.
Madrid has gone up the scale for factors such as improvements to external transport (sixth place), the political climate generated by the government (seventh place) and because it is one of the European cities with the most highly qualified labor force (eighth place).
As far as Barcelona is concerned, those consulted underscored the ability of its workforce to speak several languages (eleventh place) and the quality of hotel accommodation (third place). London and Paris were the most well-known business centers in Europe followed by Barcelona in third place and Madrid in sixth.
As for expansion plans to other European cities in the next 5 years, Moscow is at the top of the list and Madrid and Barcelona are behind Paris and London as the most attractive western cities.
Worldwide, China and India are the two countries chosen by the 500 executives of major European companies interviewed for the location of their business over the next 5 years where they still have no offices. China is at the top of the ranking with Shanghai and Peking followed by Bombay and New Delhi in India.
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