As the US economy strengthens and the dollar appreciates against a wide range of world currencies, now is a good time to take a closer look at several of its world cities. So, in this issue, we have added Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco to our usual world city mix. As a result, Rio, Sydney, Mumbai and Dubai are taking a bit of a back seat in this issue of 12 Cities, but they will return in the next edition.

Each of the additional US cities we have selected, alongside 12 Cities regular New York, have very different characteristics but all are globally renowned. As such, they command world city status and attract, for different reasons, a wide variety of overseas investment while playing host to a wide range of international companies and enterprises.

"US real estate trends often lead the way for other parts of the globe"

It is perhaps appropriate that our special feature is about the physical form of world city urbanisation. US real estate trends often lead the way for other parts of the globe and the repopulation, regeneration and city renaissance experienced in so many US cities over the past 20 years has been echoed in Europe and other ‘old world’ regions, while the urban growth in many ‘new world’ cities has tended to emulate an earlier, mid-20th century auto-oriented and high-rise US model of city-making.

We explore the latest trends and urbanisation issues faced by each of our world cities, examine the challenges they have in common, how some of them have been solved and consider what lessons can be learnt from different parts of the world.

Taken from
Savills World Research: 12 Cities - H1 2015