Los Angeles has been rankedthe top real estate investment market in the world. According toSchroders' Global Cities Index, Los Angeles is thetop investment market for the fourth year in a row, based oneconomic, environmental and education platforms. London and HongKong also retained their ranking as the second and third top citiesfor real estate investment.

Los Angeles simply has the scale, growth and skill base thatmakes it a global hub and the center of one of the most importantindustries—entertainment," Hugo Machin, Co-head ofthe Global Cities at Schroders, tells GlobeSt.com. "The data bearsthis out. The index is a relative assessment of where, in terms ofcity locations, we think capital would be best deployed."

This year, the index included an assessment of environmentalimpact, which was new from years past. The inclusion of theenvironmental score caused L.A.'s ranking to drop from 8.6 lastyear to 8.1 in 2020. "L.A.'s Environmental score did cause itsoverall score to slip, but not enough to see it drop down therankings," says Machin. "L.A. scores poorly on areas of physicalrisk in the EIS such as seismic hazard, carbon policy and airquality, but that is balanced out by a decent environmental policyscore—again, we stress that this is a relative assessment. We use acomposite data source for policy risk within the EIS score."