Hyderabad Wins Comfort Race but Bengaluru Still Leads Tech Game

Hyderabad emerged top among seven other metros in the ‘ease of living’ chart, according to a report by UnboxingBLR’s WeAreCity 2026. The robust real estate market, affordable commuting options and ‘good’ weather helped the city to clinch the top position. Bengaluru stands second in the list. Hyderabad has a lot of land helping the city in its growth.

As Bengaluru and Hyderabad are trying to strengthen their position as tech hubs, the report has compared the two in its “A Tale of Two Cities” study. Though the study did not focus on declaring a winner, it found that Bengaluru is ahead of Hyderabad in most aspects. At the same time, the Telangana capital is also fast catching up, in terms of jobs, and GCCs.

The eight metros that were part of the study included Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Greater Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bengaluru.

The report also revealed that Bengaluru and Hyderabad collectively surged ahead of Delhi NCR and Mumbai in terms of economic dominance, even when the two cities have lesser population compared to the two metros.

A decade ago, the two cities accounted for 15% of new companies formed in India’s top eight cities but in the last financial year, they climbed up to 25%.  Hyderabad and Bengaluru are also ahead of others in office space absorption, domestic flight movement, home loans, entry-level jobs, and academic enrolment.

The report revealed Hyderabad has roughly three=fourths of Bengaluru’s GDP, even when Ranga Reddy district, one of the wealthiest districts in India and has half of the latter’s Grade A office space stock.

Bengaluru emerged a leader in GCCs, both in terms of numbers and being higher in tech value chain. Hyderabad was found to be putting in efforts to bridge the gap. Both cities were found to be having traffic problems and also having equal chaos during commuting to the office.

UnboxingBLR co-founder and CEO Malini Goyal said “A Tale of Two Cities” focused on understanding how people in the two cities live, work, spend, commute and build their lives.