Hong Kong housing world's most expensive

Feb 1, 2011 - PropertyGuru.com.sg

New World residential real estate markets are a riskier investment yet also bring higher rewards for investors, said a new global survey. It also found that Hong Kong the most expensive centre for each household type, including the global billionaire.

The Global Cities survey from Savills showed that leading cities in “new world” emerging markets have surpassed the more established prime residential markets in “old world” economies over the last five years, but at the expense of better volatility.

The Savills survey found that Hong Kong was 55 percent more expensive and New York was 15 percent cheaper than London, based on current sterling values. The analysis also showed that the so-called global cities have surpassed their countries’ broader market and serve as a real funnel for wealth, especially internationally generated wealth.
 
The study highlighted four global cities — two emerging and two established — and found that the cost of a comparable ‘basket’ of properties was currently higher in emerging global cities.

The total cost of a basket of seven properties in Hong Kong now stands at £15 million, compared to slightly over £10 million in Moscow, £9.6 million in London and £8 million in New York.

“Our analysis reveals that these four global cities each significantly outperform the broader market of their countries and act as a real funnel for wealth. They do this by attracting money from global elite of billionaires who invest in real estate for different reasons and with a different source of wealth from the rest of the population,” said Yolande Barnes, Head of Savills

The average value of homes occupied by the globally wealthy is about twice that of a regional chief executive on a standardised price psf measure, which ranges from around £6,500 psf in Hong Kong to nearly £2,500 in New York, just over £2,500 in Moscow and £3,000 in prime London. Research.