Luxury Property Markets World Over Show Steady Growth

The international luxury real estate market continues to evolve with changing lifestyles, constantly altering financial objectives and assorted tastes and preferences of people who demand luxury homes.

Christie’s Annual International Real Estate Luxury Report ‘Luxury Defined: An Insight into the Luxury Residential Property Market 2016’released recently offers fresh perspectives about how macroeconomic factors are influencing demand, inventory, prices and sales in the prime property market world over. The report examines and analyses data from 100 prestigious real estate markets worldwide and earmarks global bench marks by ranking the top 10 luxury cities (luxury index) and 10 performing markets (luxury thermometer).


The luxury real estate index only rates properties of strictly high-value. While the starting benchmarking point for a luxury home varies considerably due to various factors including the changing exchange rates, the focus is on homes with prices of $ 1 million upwards with the average starting price for a luxury property worldwide at $2.2 million.


In the present report, London occupies the top position, clocking the most luxury listings than any other city, with the world’s second most expensive residential sale of $141 million in 2015. Hong Kong over took New York to take the second place for the first time despite “…negative annual overall sales growth and pressures from a decline in mainland Chinese outflow.” the report reads. Hong Kong also has the distinction of recording the world’s top residential sale of $194 million, in 2015.




The only Australian city to figure in the world’s top ten luxury homes destinations, Sydney fell two notches to the sixth position behind Singapore, which has been showing encouraging indications of an upturn after several years of some erosion arising out of cautious government measures.


The time taken to sell luxury homes has been reducing marginally. This is due to the limited supply in the market creating improved demand. In a majority of the markets world over, days that property remained unsold has dropped or in some cities remained fairly constant in 2015 in comparison to that in 2014. The average number of days on the market for an unsold luxury home has been 195, which is a 23 percent improvement from 2014. Ken Jacobs of ‘Ken Jacobs Australian affiliate of Christies’ feels that a deficit of stock of good luxury homes in Sydney is “…lessening the impact of the market softening in other price points.” Markets like Sydney saw a decline in selling time from 93 days on market to 67 days in 2015 due to increasing market attraction and inventory causes. In the same way Paris shortened selling time from 170 days in 2014 to 165 in 2015. A look at the selling time from around the world would be revealing.





Another emerging city with potential in Australia is Auckland. It is named as the world’s ‘hottest’ city in the index. The city registered a 63 percent growth in the above million dollar category due to strong demand internationally as well as domestically. 


The index estimates that growth of the global prime property market for the rest of 2016 and the year after seems inclined to a slow but steady growth with firming up of prices and volumes of sales. Overall the market seems to be interestingly poised for growth.