Savills launches 2026 Global Talent Cities Index revealing shifting business strategies
Produced as part of its Impacts thought leadership programme, the international real estate advisor says that businesses’ ‘talent first’ location strategies are causing a swift evolution in how cities are evolving to capitalise on their talent pipelines and become prominent hubs in their own right, driving real estate requirements.
Savills says that London, New York, Singapore and other major cities near the top of its Index continue to be global command hubs for capital, talent and decision-making, with deep global talent pools, dense corporate ecosystems, VC networks and high quality office space suitable for global HQs. However, cities such as Toronto (9th), Madrid (11th), and Berlin (18th) are increasingly being seen as alternative options for businesses pursuing dual-hub strategies, or looking to access strong regional talent pools at a relative lower cost.
A series of other cities are also specialising to capitalise on their unique strengths and offer options to businesses looking to focus on particular sectors or business strategies: Savills cites Kuala Lumpur (15th), Lisbon (19th) and Bengaluru (29th) for low-cost skilled talent, for instance, and Melbourne (17th), Copenhagen (24th) , and Montreal (14th) for their liveability, which can help to attract and retain talent, and relative lower costs than larger cities.
Sarah Brooks, associate director in Savills World Research, comments: “Traditionally, businesses clustered in a select few leading global cities, drawn by deep talent pools, access to capital and proximity to clients. Today, a new corporate geography is emerging. Major global cities remain crucial for senior decision makers to connect with key clients and capital, but they’re now part of wider office networks that support growth, provide access to talent and improve cost efficiency.
“This new dynamic is going to continue to drive demand for prime office space across the key global cities which top our Index. These locations have already seen significant rises in net effective costs as the pipeline of new development has been squeezed, leading to new requirements for space in cities further down the Index. The real estate in these ‘new’ location options must remain flexible to meet evolving needs or support the specialist functions that occupiers are looking to carry out, for instance in the form of global capability centres or tech-enabled lab space to support bespoke sector growth.”
Michelle Needles, global head of enterprise solutions, Global Occupier Services, Savills, adds: “The traditional relationship between workers and jobs has been flipped: increasingly, companies are not asking talent to relocate, but are moving to where they can find skills matched to their strategy. They are selecting the types of cities where the right talent wants to be – and will continue to want to be. This also includes deprioritizing cities that are densely populated with competitors. When everyone goes to the same place, the competitive advantage disappears, and we see saturated hiring markets, wage inflation, and talent with too many options, making operations more fragile. The best talent strategy often involves places your competitors haven’t yet discovered.”