WORK
Horizon Cities Index
Transforming data into location opportunity for a global real estate conglomerate
Since early 2026 Berkof has been partnering with a global real estate organisation to decipher a question that none of its instruments could answer. Berkof’s response became a compendium of insights drawn from Berkof’s proprietary data, and backed up with context by our specialists’ expertise across location decision making.
What we delivered
Berkof AI: Portfolio readiness audit
Berkof Agentic Solutions: Location assistant
Berkof Advisory: Site selection advisory, readiness gap reporting
Berkof produced a flagship report, The Horizon Cities Index; a portrait of cities building the future fastest, a new way of deciding where capital belongs for the next twenty years.
Berkof approached the client’s brief from a unique location decision making perspective - a perspective not grounded in the present but focused on the future. Our clients liabilities are centred on the long term. They run twenty or thirty years out. Berkof’s unique approach for deciphering the strengths and liabilities of a location beneath a physical asset was the methodologies starting point. Our client already had the trusted asset numbers that traditionally characterise real estate opportunity; yield, comparables, occupancy. Our client recognised these trusted numbers are a record of the past. Telling you what a place has already been. Berkof flipped this question and asked whether the location will still deserve the asset when the liability matures. With this perspective in focus, we framed the brief around one sentence. Which cities have the readiness to support long horizon value creation?
Uncovering a new metric for evaluating real estate opportunity.
Commercial real estate has many instruments for measuring the past and almost none for understanding a location's future trajectory. We applied our readiness methodology across our data analysis and qualitative context capabilities to measure this trajectory, draw insights from the data and ultimately assist with capital allocation advisory across markets, based on the outcomes. Utilising Berkof’s AI Platform we measured locations globally - twice. The first number was viability; where a place stands today. The second number was readiness; where it is heading. The distance between the two numbers is the readiness gap. A positive gap means the location's foundations are being built faster than the present suggests. We defined this as location opportunity in formation.
Learn more about Berkof's AI Platform here.
Three questions increasingly asked of every city.
Location opportunity increasingly stems from three questions. Will this location lead sustainable change over the next twenty years? Will it attract and retain people, capital and technology? Will it remain viable as climate uncertainty intensifies? Together, these questions convert a backward looking question, is this a good location today, into a forward signal: will this location compound value or erode it through 2050?
This signal is made up of hundreds of proprietary data sources per location from satellite feeds to municipal reporting, read across twenty-six scored domains and projected forward five, ten and twenty years. Berkof’s methodology ensures every score is benchmarked against our global database of locations. Importantly, as part of Berkof’s proprietary methodologies, every score is then calibrated by a trajectory modifier that rewards places investing ahead of need. The result is a single readiness adjusted location score for every city, and beneath it, the gap.
Our insights focused on the readiness gap, rather than the score, as the signal for our client to guide their location decision making. Leading the front of the Horizon Cities Index, was Osaka, with a readiness score of 73 against a viability score of 67. For our client, Berkof’s research has shown them where the future is being built the fastest and provides a reading of the distance between what a place is and what it is about to become. Globally, readiness now exceeds viability in twenty-two cities.
From a reading to a decision.
We enabled our client to make actionable decisions at the real estate parcel level, based on the outcomes of the Horizon Cities Index. In Osaka Bay, a logistics facility returns a raw climate risk score of 68. When read against the location’s engineered readiness, sluice gates, diversion channels, storm surge defenses, the score falls to 36, and the adaptation budget almost reduces by fifty percent. Conventionally, the market had priced a hazard the location had engineered away. Our client was able to see both numbers before bidding for every asset and inside their own workflow, through the Berkof Assistant, our autonomous location partner.
With the help of our analytics we also helped our client identify emerging locations not yet fully recognised by the wider market. The most common profile of an undiscovered location pairs strong regenerative foundations and real climate resilience with talent flows the market has not noticed yet. We enabled our client to make early market entry decisions smoothly, with the right information and at the right time. As readiness gaps compound - a location whose readiness is recognised attracts capital; the capital funds further readiness, and the gap then widens before it closes. The outcomes enabled the client to read the gap first, accrue a distinct advantage ahead of the wider market, and become first movers in undiscovered locations.
Learn more about our Agentic Solutions and the Berkof Assistant here.
An index to hold and a partner twenty-four seven.
As part of our services for the client we compiled the insights compendiums into a comprehensive standalone 262 page book. Long-form essays on the nature of readiness sit beside ranked charts and beautiful illustrations. While each location carries its own worked example, its own signal, and its own portrait. In parallel we provide ongoing location due diligence capabilities for the client, through Berkof’s Agentic Solutions - Berkof Assistant, enabling real time, autonomous decision making capabilities that are embedded in the clients own tools and workflows.
Wherever that place may be.
We founded Berkof to help articulate location opportunity, for organisations deciding where to commit capital and for places deciding what to become. The Horizon Cities Index 2026 was produced to answer one question for one client. We have the capabilities, context, and perspectives, to help answer your question. Get in touch with our team below or learn more about Berkof AI, Berkof Agentic Solutions and Berkof Advisory here.
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Curious for more?
Read about why readiness is key for understanding location opportunity here.