Austin Casts A Shadow On San Francisco in Tech City Metrics Ranking by Savills
In the tech world, the name San Francisco home to the revered Silicon Valley, elicits a lot of respect and admirations. Some would liken it to the Mecca of techies or the Disney Land of techies. So it’s only natural that people would think it’s the ‘alpha male’ in a pack bringing together a group of tech cities from around the world. It certainly has some of the coolest startups and biggest names in the tech industry.
However, according to a report tabled by Savills, a property consultant. San Francisco City will not be the ‘alpha-city’ were it to be compared to 11 other global cities that are also home to some high tech clusters. The Savills report used five metrics in ranking up the tech cities around the world:
*Business Environment
*Tech Environment
*Quality of Life
*Talent Pool
*Property Affordability
San Francisco came in at fourth place under the Tech Environment, sixth on Talent Pool, fifth on Business Environment, second on Quality of Life and eighth under Property Affordability. Austin, Texas took first place in the overall ranking.
Paul Tostevin, a lead research analyst for Savills, used these words to describe Austin, “It’s got the talent.” Tostevin described San Francisco as having “a herd effect” in term of people living there.
“As the most established tech center, there is a large pre-existing pool of talent in San Francisco. For a company looking for experienced employees…this is the place to be,” said Tostevin.
Sagi Shorrer, a co-founder of Brainbow Ltd. based in London, said that as much as he is comfortable operating from London. If he were to relocate to San Francisco, it would make a lot of sense for his company. Shorrer highlighted San Francisco’s proximity to venture capitalist, easy access to products early adopters and best of the talents to recruit as the most attractive things about San Francisco. However, Shorrer also points out the cost of hiring talent and acquiring office space as being too high.
In Savills’s list of 12 cities around the world, Austin too, is said to be a big student city with one of the youngest pool for talented people. Tel Aviv, New York and Stockholm came in at third, fourth and fifth place respectively in the general ranking, and all have a growing tech sector.
Savills used data measuring tech infrastructure, business costs and talent pool from reliable sources such as government statistics, population census and age and population forecasts running through to the year 2024. Data on property prices were from Savills, and it was the first time the firm undertook such a study.
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