TALLINN - The World Winning Cities study by the Jones Lang LaSalle real estate company has ranked Tallinn as one of the world's 24 cities with the greatest development potential.
The global research was conducted last year. Experts said Tallinn's rapid success is based primarily on technological progress, which is making the city part of the Nordic technology cluster.
However, the Estonian capital falls short on several vital economic indicators, the survey found. Neither Estonia nor Tallinn made it to the list of positive civic examples for living quality, environment-friendliness or entrepreneurial spirit.
Furthermore, of the nations surveyed, Estonia and Latvia are the only ones where the population has declined substantially (15 percent) over the past decade.
As to the economic growth pace, no European country or city can match Asia.
Paul Kivimets, deputy director of the Swedish office of Jones Lang LaSalle who recently presented the firm's survey, said, "To my mind, one of the greatest drawbacks of Estonia is its small size." This is frequently why investors pick some other country for development or expansion, he added.
Kivimets said Estonia should increase its share of production. "Estonia's strength is in the fast development of technology," he noted.
While Estonia, and Tallinn in particular, has in recent years attracted Nordic technological companies with their highly qualified IT specialists, real estate developers have yet to discover the region, the survey found.
The poll rated the transparency of Estonia's real estate market with a weak four out of a possible five, while in the United States and Western Europe transparency and clarity are the key market characteristics.
The real estate market is also restricted by a massive bureaucracy, the study said.
According to Jones Lang LaSalle, the cities with the greatest development potential are Austin, Helsinki, Bangalore, Barcelona, Budapest and Calgary.
