Peter Roberts
Chief Executive Officer, Americas
Jones Lang LaSalle
Fascinating session in the afternoon about the future of urban development. Engaged in the discussion were the mayors of Chongqing, China, and Tianjin, China, the Governor of Bangkok, and the Vice Mayor of Moscow, as well as a number of people from the private sector and non-government organizations.
One of the most interesting aspects of the conversation was how growing resource scarcity will put a premium on sustainable development over the next decade. Citing the construction of a hospital over a body of water rather than creating a landfill upon which to build it, the Governor of Bangkok commented that “Man’s instinct is to fight nature. Perhaps we would be better off if we learned to live with it.” Very true!
The challenges we see in the U.S. around urbanization were put into perspective when we heard the mayor of Chongqing talk about their challenges maintaining quality of life in the face of rapid growth. Chongqing adds 600 cars to the road EVERY DAY, added 150,000 apartment units last year and has 1,000 construction sites in the city currently…the pace of growth boggles the mind! They’ve also added 400 parks to the cityscape, and are currently constructing two bridges and two tunnels over and under the Yangtze River to ease traffic congestion.
Urbanization is clearly not a thing of the past. Our firm’s latest report, A New World of Cities, continues to see 50 percent of global commercial real estate investment concentrated in only 30 cities around the world. But we also see this as a decade of change as investors widen their horizons. In particular, China’s cities – and Chongqing and Tianjin are the world’s two fastest growing cities by GDP – offer massive potential as they’re transformed by unprecedented development.
While no one can predict the future, it is clear that both the private and public sectors will have critical roles advancing the agenda of urbanization – and ensuring it’s done well and sustainably. It’s an enormous challenge, one that Jones Lang LaSalle has played an active role in, but also one that all of us have to be focused on.