MSCI has claimed that the office sectors of global gateway cities have not offered superior and safer investments to justify their premium pricing.

In a report called Global Gateway Cities: The Performance Behind the Hype, MSCI says that gateway cities “did not provide superior unadjusted returns over the decade ending 2016, based on annualized total returns”.

From 2007 to 2016, 10-year annualized total returns for standing office investments in the global gateway cities of London, Paris, New York City and Tokyo all underperformed “regional gateway cities” such as Toronto, Sydney, San Francisco and Seoul, and “nationally significant cities” including Johannesburg, Stockholm, Taipei and Oslo. They also underperformed Adelaide, Austin, Canberra, Lyon, Marseille and Vancouver, which are in smaller, more secondary markets.