A report by property consultant CBRE has named Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Bengaluru and Gurugram as the top 5 preferred destinations in Asia Pacific to set up offices by technology companies because of better business conditions as well as availability of engineers and real estate for growth.
The report added that technology companies continue to fuel office demand in the APAC region, despite absence of any principal city or cluster of the same status as Silicon Valley. Technology sector accounted for 23 percent of total leasing activity in 2018.
The study has ranked 15 cities of Asia Pacific in three categories based on their performance with regard to business conditions, innovation environment, and cost and availability. Business conditions and innovation environment were each given a weightage of 40 percent while cost, a relatively less important consideration for tech firms, was given 20 percent weightage.
These cities are preferred destinations for a wide range of traditional and new tech companies seeking to establish a base of operations in Asia Pacific. Hyderabad figures in the list of five competent cities along with Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Tokyo, and Seoul. These cities already host tech industry sub-sectors and demonstrate solid performance across most categories.
Five ‘supplement cities’ are Hong Kong, Hsinchu, Sydney, Taipei, and Auckland. These cities rate favourably on certain important aspects, but their most appropriate role is to serve as host for specific functions to complement larger hubs elsewhere in the region.
“India is home to an increasing number of tech unicorns and Asia Pacific is increasingly defined as the region leading in the rapid adoption of disruptive technology. However, there is still room for growth in terms of identifying locations where business conditions, innovation and talent come together to form a globally competitive digital hub,” said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman and CEO, CBRE India.
