04 January 2023 , 12:15
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The capital of England has got 2023 off to a flying start by being named the best city in the world.
London has topped the charts of World's Best Cities rankings, beating Paris and New York into second and third place respectively.
The 11million-person city was particularly praised for its amazing restaurants, being a hit on social media as the 'hashtag capital of the world', and having a huge amount of luxury properties that attract the mega-rich.
The rankings, which are compiled by real estate and tourism consultancy firm Resonance, look at six different categories: place, product, programming, people, prosperity and promotion.
They are more focused on financial and business factors, such as the number of large tech firms in a given city, than other more holiday centred rankings.
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The rankings highlighted London as a good place for investment (Getty Images)London comes out top in the Promotions category, with its residents and visitors producing the most Insta hashtags, Facebook check-ins and TripAdvisor reviews.
It seems Londoners are online story telling machines, promoting the city to the rest of the world and chronicling many of the great things it has to offer.
Foremost among these are exceptional restaurants.
"If all those newcomers can’t cook at home, they came to the right place, especially these days, when the culinary industry is being reborn after dozens of the city’s most iconic restaurants shuttered over the pandemic," it is argued in the rankings.
"The city with the fourth-best restaurants on the planet is buzzing again with big-name openings like Dubai-based izakaya-style restaurant Kinoya in Harrods.
"There are hundreds of other rooms soon joining this increasingly daring culinary destination serving—and welcoming the world once more."
London was praised for its excellent restaurant scene (Getty Images)As much as the fortunes of the City and the ultra-wealthy aren't a daily concern for most residents, both are doing well for themselves in London, according to the rankings.
"Despite much-warranted hand-wringing about the flight of talent and capital due to the pall of Brexit (and the follow-up specter of an airborne pandemic), London is hanging in just fine, relying on a dipping currency to attract investment and, of course, previously priced-out tourists," it argues.
"And new residents. New wealthy residents who can now afford to check off a big item on the multi-millionaire bucket list: property in the best city on the planet.
"An astonishing 61 luxury London properties—each worth $11.5 million (£9.5m) or more—were sold in the first six months of 2022, which was the highest number in a decade."
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Paris was knocked into the second spot (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Whether this, or the fact the UK has the lowest corporation tax in the G7, are good things for the average Londoner without a few million in their pocket isn't completely clear.
What will be welcomed however is the fact Paris, New York, Tokyo (4th) and Dubai (5th) have been bested by London.
Barcelona, Rome, Madrid, Singapore and Amsterdam make up the rest of the top ten.
Sadly for the rest of the UK, London was the only city to make it into the top 50.
There wasn't even a spot for Edinburgh, which topped Time Out magazine's rankings for 2022.