HCM City, the economic hub of Viet Nam, achieved GDP growth of 9.6 per cent in 2014, 1.7 times higher than the country's average. The improved Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal aims to bring the city a breath of fresh air. — VNA/VNS Photo Manh Linh

The firm revealed the list through its City Momentum Index (CMI) paper in late January.

This is JLL's second annual CMI, which captures the dynamics of a city's real-estate market - its rates of construction and absorption, price movement and the attraction of a city's built environment for cross-border capital.

The CMI selected HCM City as one among six new cities, including Sydney and Melbourne, to figure in the top 20. The city's construction levels are high, although growth rates are exaggerated by the small size of the existing commercial real-estate market.

Meanwhile, London has topped the CMI list because of its robust economic fundamentals, further boosted by large volumes of cross-border real-estate investment and a positive outlook for commercial property prices. San Jose or Silicon Valley, which is the global hub of the high-tech venture capital industry, is ranked second and is followed by Beijing.

Despite an economic slowdown, China is still home to seven of the world's 20 most dynamic cities, including Shanghai and Wuhan in the fifth and eighth positions, respectively.

The CMI also pointed out that the technology sector continues to be a major driver of city momentum across the globe as technology giants and start-ups invest in new technologies and infrastructure and generate jobs. Several of the world's technology-rich cities appear in the Top 20, including Boston, San Francisco and Bangalore.

The index also assessed 120 cities with a weighted overall score, based on 37 variables, including short-term socio-economic momentum variables, short-term commercial real-estate momentum variables and longer term variables. — VNS