Property Talk

Author: Andreas Wassenaar
Date: 2016-03-18

What are the cities that matter in the world today? According to Knight Frank's recently published Wealth Report, which has ranked the cities that matter most to the world's wealthy, based on where they live, invest, educate their children, grow their businesses, network and spend their leisure time, there are two global cities that remain firmly on top. Year-in and year-out London and New York have vied for the top two slots. This last year saw London beat New York for the second successive time to win the accolade of "most important city to ultra high net worth individuals" (UHNWI). There are 187,500 UHNWI's around the world, defined as an individual who has net assets in excess of US$30m excluding their primary residence. The number of UHNWI's is up 61% from 116,800 in 2005. In terms of the Wealth Report's survey the cities that take up the positions three to six are Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai, giving you some idea of the emergence of Asia as a hotbed of wealth creation and emerging super cities.

You may ask yourself the question as to where all these UHNWI's are in the world? According to he breakdown provided the vast majority (37%) are in North America. This is followed by Europe (25%) and Asia (22%). That only leaves 16% for the Middle East, Australasia, Latin America & Carribean, Africa and Russia. With the whole of Africa only contributing 2,620 UHNWI's in 2015 or 1,4% of the global total, this provides some perspective on where the wealth is centered around the world.

One of the fascinating aspects of the Wealth Report is the publication of the Prime International Residential Index - PIRI, which looks at 100 cities globally and ranks them according to price growth over the past year. In 2015, 66 of the top 100 cities had flat or positive price escalation, whereas 34 cities showed varying levels of negative price growth. The Canadian city of Vancouver came out on top with prices escalating by an incredible 24,5%, followed by Sydney with 14,8% price growth, Shanghai at 14,1%, Istanbul at 13% and Munich at 12%. Cape Town featured in position 13 with 6,9% growth in prices and Johannesburg in 26th position with growth of 4%. The worst performance by far was Lagos with prices receding by -20%. Dubai prices were recorded as decreasing by -5,5% in terms of this survey. An interesting comparison often used in this report is what US$1m will buy in terms of square metres across the top cities. The most expensive rate per square meter is to be found in Monaco where US1$m buys only 17 sqm - less than a single garage size. This amount buys 20 sqm in Hong Kong, 22 sqm in London, 27 sqm in New York and 40 sqm in both Geneva and Sydney. In Cape Town US$1m will buy you 255 sqm and in Zimbali a far more respectable 750 sqm. This gives you some idea of how undervalued Zimbali real estate currently is on a global standard.

The benefit we have in living in relative obscurity along the KZN North Coast is that we have the opportunity to adopt best practice to our local environment from the development hotspots around the world while enjoying the luxury of space at bargain prices.

For further information and an interactive analysis of this article follow my blog: andreaswassenaar.blogspot.com.

Andreas Wassenaar

Principal - Seeff Dolphin Coast

Cell: 082 837 9094

andreasw@seeff.com

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