Cape Town - Cape Town and Johannesburg rank among the top 50 so-called alpha cities in the world.
These are cities which are attractive to the ultra-rich when they decide on where to buy luxury real estate in a city, according to the Wealth-X Global Property Handbook. It was compiled in collaboration with Warburg Realty and Barnes International Realty.
The first edition of the handbook reviews the luxury real estate market and explores the buying habits of the world’s wealthiest people. These ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWs) have a net worth of $30m (about R400m) or more.
The ideal city property must satisfy a range of practical, emotional, and financial considerations.
Cape Town ranks 37th one notch below Dubai (36th). The Mother City's attractiveness for luxury purchases by the very rich is seen as on a par with Oslo in Norway, Basel in Switzerland and Moscow in Russia.
READ: 66 000 South Africans in top 1% of wealthiest
Johannesburg ranks 46th, just below cities like Sao Paulo in Brazil, Dublin in Ireland, Mumbai in India and Kuwait City in Kuwait, which are collectively in 42nd place.
Johannesburg is seen as on a par with Shenzhen in China and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. It beats only two cities in the top 50, namely Guangzhou in China and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
Despite Brexit, London ranks first for the ultra-rich when they consider purchasing luxury property. New York comes in second place, Tokyo third, Sydney fourth, Paris fifth, Chicago and San Francisco both sixth along with Osaka in Japan, while Toronto and Washington DC take the ninth spot together.
The report singles out Cuba as the top emerging market for real estate developers.
Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter: Fin24’s top stories