Singapore ranks 12th in Savills Global Tech Cities Ranking

Big, established tech hubs hosting a diversified tech base top the overall Savills Tech City ranking (see methodology), with New York, San Francisco and Silicon Valley taking the top three spots. These cities offer deep pools of talent, quality higher education institutions, large supporting business and tech ecosystems and attract high volumes of VC in multiple tech verticals.

The US and China continue to dominate the top of our rankings: US cities account for more than half of the top thirty. Top ranking San Francisco (1st) and Silicon Valley (3rd) cement the San Francisco Bay Area as the preeminent global tech hub, in spite of and cooling local real estate markets and competition from lower-cost tech centres. New York (2nd) benefits from access to a deep talent pool and the city’s reputation as a global centre of commerce.

Six Chinese cities feature in the top 30, led by Beijing (4th) and Shanghai (7th). In spite of tighter controls China put on its big tech companies, its major tech centres remain important, supported by a vast home market, established domestic tech ecosystems and continued global demand for its manufactured products.

Attracting by far the most VC in Europe across a wide range of tech sectors, London ranks 5th globally, ahead of Paris in 9th and Berlin in 19th.

A number of other smaller cities (by global standards) are present, punching above their weight on a global stage. They include Austin in 11th (population 960,000), Raleigh-Durham in 21st (population 755,000), and Denver in 23rd (population 710,000). These cities offer a quality business and education environment, combined with city living on a smaller footprint, benefitting as people sought a better quality of life in the wake of the pandemic. That allows easier access to amenities and a better work/life balance for residents, but with all the ‘buzz’ of larger urban centres.

Established, Challenger and Rising Tech Cities

By comparing the depth and breadth of a city’s tech base with its quality as a place to live and grow a business in, three key city groups emerge:

Established: These are big, global cities that attract the lion’s share of global VC across a wide range of tech sub sectors. Examples: New York, Beijing, London.

Challenger: Important global centres that attract a wide range of tech, but have specialisms in certain tech sectors. Examples: Boston, Hangzhou, Singapore.

Rising: Secondary global centres usually specialising in one tech sector. Many offer cost advantages over the established or challenger cities. Examples: Atlanta, Oslo, Bristol, Tallinn.

What we noticed was actually less of a change in the future workplace per say, but actually a change in work itself. For the last 100 years, an office has been an office, the fundamental DNA never really changed. Yes, the advances in modern technology and alike enabled the various internal mobility models, ABW, Agile, and alike, and that enables a greater array of design aesthetics. We also cannot ignore the rise of shared office models, such as co-working spaces (created to address the previous slowdown in global economic conditions, prior to the pandemic).

Co-working spaces are in demand now, offering companies and organisations an opportunity to de-risk their CRE portfolio with shorter leases, or more flex-space, with easier get out clauses, which everyone wants now, after 18 months of the work-from-home (WFH) experiment.

What has fundamentally changed, for the first time in 100 years is the ability for people to truly ‘work anywhere and at any time’, and after 12-18 months many people have formed new habits. These shifts in working patterns will now formulate what the future workplace will look like, not technology, that will just enable the new model, as it has been doing already.

A big challenge for everyone going forward is how to truly realign the companies and organisations key business needs and objectives, with those of the staff and colleagues. As without this essential alignment, many will fail, as we cannot survive in today’s ever competitive business environment without embracing ‘change – the new normal for us all’.