Related Articles
Top Stories
May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
Johannesburg - The super rich have not lost their appetite for trophy holiday homes and investment properties in global hotspots such as Monaco, London and New York despite falling house prices, according to a new report by UK property group Knight Frank and Citi Private Bank.
According to the 2009 Wealth Report, property accounts for about 30% of High Net Worth Individuals' (HNWIs') asset portfolios. Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, says although enthusiasm for bricks and mortar investments have been dented by the effects of the credit crunch, most wealthy investors are not looking to downscale their exposure to property.
In fact, almost 55% of HNWIs who participated in Citi Private Bank's survey plan to increase their exposure to residential property over the next two years. Bailey says a number of City Private Bank clients are starting to take advantage of distressed real estate sales, as the global housing sector moves into bargain-hunting territory.
Bailey says it appears that bricks and mortar offers a sense of security that stock markets cannot provide in today's uncertain economic environment. "Property is set to continue to play a major role in HNWIs' investment strategies, but the tough lessons learnt during the credit crunch mean the focus will remain firmly on tangible and transparent assets."
Bailey believes that the 2009 Wealth Report has been released at an opportune time, amid a period of global wealth destruction rather than creation. "Even the world's richest people have cut their discretionary spending, and most desirable prime residential property markets have now been affected by the global downturn."
The survey nevertheless reveals that the wealthy are not losing too much sleep about any drop in the value of where they actually live. Only 5.3% of those interviewed is concerned about falling house prices.
Priciest property locations
Bailey says that may well be because primary and second homes account for a much smaller proportion of HNWIs' total wealth than the majority of the population, whose homes may well be their only real asset of value.
The report shows that although nearly half of the 55 global property markets featured as prime international hotspots managed to record positive price growth in 2008 on an annual basis, growth had either stalled or fallen in 41 (75%) of these locations by fourth-quarter 2008.
The report also highlights a widening performance gap between top-end property markets across the globe. For instance, Bangkok was the best-performing market in 2008 with house prices up 22.5%, while Hong Kong ended at the bottom of the performance stakes with prices down 24.5%.
Monaco is the most expensive housing market in the world. The best properties in Monaco will set buyers back an average €55 000/m² (R715 000/m²). London and Manhattan are placed as the second- and third-priciest top-end real estate destinations, with average prices around €28 000/m² (R364 000/m²) and €6 500/m² (R84 500/m²).
Local estate agents say that compares to an average selling price of between R60 000/m² and R80 000/m² for top-end properties on Cape Town's Atlantic seaboard. That means investors are paying about one-tenth in Cape Town of the going rate for prime properties of similar size and quality in Monaco.
This is the third year running that Knight Frank and Citi Private Bank have jointly compiled the Wealth Report to determine HNWIs' attitudes towards their property and investment portfolios.
Citi Private Bank serves more than 26 000 clients across the globe, who typically have investable assets worth more than $10m (R95m).
- Fin24.com