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Singapore emerged as the top location for multinational companies (MNCs) to establish a regional headquarters in Asia Pacific (APAC), according to a recently released report from Cushman & Wakefield.
The republic beat Hong Kong and Shanghai, which clinched the second and third spot respectively, followed by Sydney, Tokyo and Beijing.
“The analysis shows that all of the six cities covered have their positive and negative aspect, but by taking them all into account the city-state comes out on top,” said the consultancy.
Singapore rose as the best place to set-up a regional headquarters due to its low tax regime, good living conditions, diversity of economic base, favourable legal environment and availability of international talent. It is also touted as the gateway to Southeast Asia as well as the bridge between India & China.
In addition, it is cheaper for MNCs to set-up a regional HQ here as Hong Kong has regularly been near the top of the most expensive office locations around the world, the report revealed.
“Indeed, on a per sq m basis, Hong Kong is practically twice as expensive as Shanghai and Singapore. The differences are further increased on a per workstation measure, with Hong Kong having the worst space efficiency of the three markets,” noted the property consultancy.
“In contrast, not only is Singapore the most space efficient market of the top three but as a result of rental decline in 2015, it is the cheapest on both a per sq m and per workstation basis.”
However, the city-state’s pros are offset by high cost of living, limited land supply, high operational costs, its distance from China and existence of foreign labour restrictions.
Nevertheless, around 4,200 international firms have set-up a regional HQ in the city-state—the highest number in Asia Pacific.
Nikki De Guzman, Editor at CommercialGuru, wrote this story. To contact her about this or other stories email nikki@propertyguru.com.sg
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