The list itself is not surprising. The methodology is interesting.

Here are the criteria by which professional investors choose the best cities:

• Quality of location. This includes many parameters – unemployment rate, average household income and even green areas in the city.
• Logistics: the share of public transport, average travel time to work and the ratio of cars to jobs.
• Demographics: population size, share of employed residents and dynamics of the number of households.
• And, perhaps, the most interesting thing is innovation: the number of students, the number of patent applications and the share of young people.

The last criterion rarely makes it into the reports of real estate market analysts. But, indeed, this is an important guarantee of future demand for housing.