Dedicated to Swiss – Infrastructure & Real Estate in the Greater Zurich Area

Greater Zurich Area AG, May 2013: Infrastructure & Real Estate 1

The Greater Zurich Area is one of Europe’s finest business

locations and provides some of the most conducive oper­

ating conditions for your local, regional and global busi­

ness. In every major infrastructure ranking, Switzerland

is among the best. According to surveys by IMD,WEF, EIU

and others, the Greater Zurich Area and Switzerland can

boast award­winning products and services in real estate,

logistic, technological and economical infrastructure.

General infrastructure amenities include the Zurich Air­

port, offering daily flights to virtually all major business

hubs on the globe, a sophisticated and comprehensive

public transportation system (train, bus, tram), and a so­

cial infrastructure including international schools, family

assistance and efficient government administration and

authorities.

The Greater Zurich Area offers a wide range of “Swiss­Qua­

lity” real estate and infrastructure, with building layouts

for the most demanding needs, top­notch equipment,

lighting, wiring, peripheral amenities, parking, postal ser­

vices and transport connections. They amount to the for­

mula for your business success.

Dedicated to Swiss – Infrastructure & Real Estate in the Greater Zurich Area

Transport infrastructure − destination: on time

All roads in the Greater Zurich Area lead to Zürich – and

from here to the world.

With its superior air, road and rail transportation sys­

tem, comprehensive and punctual at once, the Greater

Zurich Area serves as an ideal foothold to do business

in the Swiss and European markets. Because it is easy

and convenient to reach every corner of the continent,

world­ famous logistics companies such as German trans­

port behemoth Kühne & Nagel and logistics specialists

Rhenus Alpina have chosen the Greater Zurich Area as

seat for their international business.

Among the award­winning highlights of the Greater

Zurich Area’s transport infrastructure are:

• Intercontinental Zurich Airport – a mere 15 minutes

from historic downtown of the city of Zurich, Zurich

Airport offers truly global connectivity. Zurich

Airport has repeatedly won Europe’s Leading

Airport Award, World Airport and World Travel

Award in several categories for many years.

• Switzerland sports a superior system of roads of

all sizes. Efficient roadways connect Northern and

Southern Europe, following the same trade routes

already used during the Roman Empire.

• Reliable, punctual, and safe public transportation:

The public transportation of the Greater Zurich

Area is a real alternative to cars. Switzerland ranks

third in density of its railway network worldwide

(USA: 15th); e.g. using a high-speed train, central

Paris is a mere 4.5h away from Zurich main station.

The Greater Zurich Area offers functional and top­notch infrastructure and real estate for all needs.

Using express and local trains, buses, trams, cable cars and ferries, or private cars, the average commute to work rarely exceeds 30 minutes from door to door.

Greater Zurich Area AG, May 2013: Infrastructure & Real Estate 2

E-infrastructure – in the fast lane of the virtual

highway

Home to a thriving IT developers’ and suppliers’ indus­

try, the Greater Zurich Area’s award­winning e­infra­

structure satisfies the highest demands for high­volume

and high­speed data transfer.

Seeing their data communication and e­infrastructure

needs fully addressed, leading Internet companies such

as Google and Kayak have established major operations

in the Greater Zurich Area. Google runs its main Euro­

pean engineering center out of Zürich, Microsoft has

developed major VoIP­based media applications here

and Disney has opened a visualization and animation

R&D institute at the ETH Zurich.

Many SMEs, R&D spin­offs and start­ups complement

these global players of IT companies. At the Red Her­

ring 100 Global, IT start-ups from the Greater Zurich

Area have routinely represented a high share of win­

ners every year. Companies such as Collanos, semantic

systems, Hocoma AG and many more have established

the Greater Zurich Area as an important start­up loca­

tion IT world.

Accordingly, Fortune magazine named the city of Zurich

as top of the 7 Best New Global Cities for start­ups in its

October 2012 issue:

“When Google looked to set up its European engineer­

ing headquarters, it turned to Zurich, and Yahoo

followed suit. The U.S. tech giants liked Zurich’s ro­

bust broad band infrastructure, but the real appeal is

the local talent (…) the effort seems to be paying off.

Zurich is home to hundreds of start­ups, including calen­

dar software maker Doodle and Wuala, a cloud storage

company.”

Best quality of overall and e-ready infrastructure

When it comes to infrastructure and e­Readiness, Swit­

zerland and the Greater Zurich Area are consistently

ranked among the countries offering the best infra­

structure services worldwide, according to brand­name

industry surveys and research, boasting:

• Best quality of overall infrastructure (acc. to World

Economic Forum, Competitiveness Report, 2011/2).

• Third worldwide in air transportation infrastructure

(IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2011).

• Switzerland ranks second only behind South Korea

when it comes to business use of broadband

(2011, OECD, Broad Band Portal).

• 6th best availability of latest technologies worldwide

(IMD 2012).

• Best connectivity and technology infrastructure

worldwide (Economist Intelligence Unit 2008 study).

• Rank 6 in quality electricity supply (WEF 2009 – 2012).

Real estate: prime locations within a prime location

The Greater Zurich Area spans a large area of Switzer­

land, from mountain peaks to the streets of urban Zu­

rich. The Greater Zurich Area’s real estate inventory is as

diverse, and offers everything from a downtown office

space to spacious production and research facilities.

Commercial real estate prices vary accordingly, but are

generally under pressure as vacancy rates change from

location to location. Compared with other European

locations, office rents in Zürich and the Greater Zurich

Area are highly competitive.

The Greater Zurich Area offers state­of­the­art e­infrastructure and data technologies that have attracted leading IT players such as Google, Kayak, Microsoft, and IBM.

High-speed fiber: ewz.zürinet

In September 2012 the City of Zürich has approved the second phase of building a free­of­charge basic public highspeed fiber network, for highest data speed and volume requirements.

ewz.zürinet is constantly expanding Switzerland’s fasted fiber network within the city, from today’s 30,000 to an estimated 240,000 individual connections by 2019. A wide array of Swiss online service providers is available on ewz. zürinet allowing for highly competitive prices.

www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ewz

Greater Zurich Area AG, May 2013: Infrastructure & Real Estate 3

Office space: renting made quick and easy

Business premises are finished to high standards, with

an IT infrastructure to match. No restrictions apply to for­

eigners to rent or buy real estate for business purposes.

On average, negotiations lead to a signed lease within

4 to 6 weeks for new developments and standard rental

properties. Standard business rentals are offered with

preliminary finish, providing:

• Fully developed operative areas/staircases.

• Raw rental area equipped with utilities and

functionalities including ventilation, IT, electricity,

water.

• Installations of previous tenants if desired.

• New properties may have funds allocated for

ceiling/wall/floor finishes.

• While not a climatic or legal requirement of the

Greater Zurich Area, central air conditioning and

sprinklers are becoming more frequent.

The Swiss are a nation of renters, also when it comes to

residential real estate. Nearly three quarters of the po­

pulation live in rented spaces. Swiss rentals enjoy luxury

standards of convenience and individuality. A complete­

ly appointed kitchen, state­of­the­art sanitary facilities,

cable and/or phone/Internet hook-ups are a matter of

course.

Rental prices vary greatly in the Greater Zurich Area, as

do vacancy rates depending on the location within the

Greater Zurich Area.

Please note that in Switzerland the entire living space

(i.e. bedrooms, living room, dining room) is included in

the description of property size. They count as rooms in

an apartment.

Compared with the world’s top real estate locations, Zurich is competitive

Market Occ Cost (In EUR per sqm per annum)

Hong Kong ............................................................................ 1,420

Tokyo ........................................................................................ 900

Paris .......................................................................................... 740

Moscow .................................................................................... 710

London ..................................................................................... 700

Peking ....................................................................................... 500

São Paulo .................................................................................. 540

Singapore ................................................................................. 540

Stockholm ................................................................................. 530

Zurich ........................................................................................ 400

Frankfurt .................................................................................. 360

Source: Colliers International, June 2012

Office space (in CHF/sqm. p.a.)

Zürich city 125 – 410 Net average 208 Greater Zurich Area 100 – 410

Price range (median) of production and storage premises

(in CHF/sqm. p.a.)

Zürich, Produktionsstätten 80 – 275 (150) Zürich, storage premises 60 – 150 (90) Greater Zurich Area, storage 30 – 230 (n/a)

Source: Colliers Office Report, 2011

Greater Zurich Area AG, May 2013: Infrastructure & Real Estate 4

SWITZERLANDGreater Zurich Area AGLimmatquai 1228001 Zürich / SwitzerlandPhone +41 44 254 59 59Fax +41 44 254 59 [email protected]

USAGreater Zurich Area Inc. swissnex building 730 Montgomery Street San Francisco, CA 94111 / USA Phone +1 415 912 5909

CHINAJianping Gao Representative China Phone +86 21 6149 8208

Have we sparked your interest?

Would you like to get to know your options in the Greater Zurich Area in more detail?

If yes, please contact your nearest Greater Zurich Area representative for more information.

We are happy to assist you in every aspect of expanding your business to the Greater Zurich Area!