A survey by a highly placed and respected European banking internet site has just concluded a survey showing where the most expensive roads are in the world for property – and the top one is Avenue Princess Grace in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
The bankers’ internet site suggest that four bedroom apartments are selling for over US 40 million dollars, and estate agents in Monaco confirm this to be about right.
And they describe the 190,000 US dollars a square metre as ‘eye-watering’ – a description few people would disagree with, and that buyers will need to be billionaires, or not far off being a billionaire.
The second most expensive street in the world is Severn Road in Hong Kong with prices fetching 120,000 US dollars a square metre, and it isn’t until third place that New York features, with Fifth Avenue real estate achieving a mere 80,000 US dollars a square metre – placing it firmly within grasp of some multi-millionaires. The upper East side side of Fifth Avenue is the part that gains most interest, and the site notes that some apartments can reach to 60 million – more than Monaco’s Princess Grace Avenue, but being such a long road in comparisom it brings the average below that of Monaco’s.
It’s back to Europe for the fourth most expensive road, London’s Kensington Palace Gardens, where property is fetching 77,000 dollars a square metre, and is symbolic of London where some areas continue to see price rises while others drop. London and Monaco normally vye for the most expensive real estate in Europe.
Helping Monaco’s Princess Grace Avenue to be the most expensive street in the world is a mix of British, Russian and Arab money, with the British buyers especially attracted by her tax haven status.
Monaco’s tourism is upmarket and exclusive too. In a recent report on Monaco’s tourism, the Director General of the tourist office announced that no less than 93 per cent of the Principality’s hotel capacity is in the luxury category – more than any other country in the world, and confirming Monaco’s status as haven for the wealthy.
Also in the report figures showed that Monaco increased her tourist numbers by 36 per cent between 2004 and 2007, and last year alone saw a 10 per cent increase over 2006.
But good as the figures are, Monaco wants to further increase her tourists numbers. Unusually it’s not just the numbers overall she wants to improve on, impressive though they are already – but one categoty in particular.
And it’s a category of tourist that Monaco is particularly well placed to attract compared to almost every other country in the world – URI’s.
URI’s could almost have been a class of tourist specially designed for Monaco and all that she offers – and it stands for Ultra Rich Individuals.
One URI could spend more in a week in Monaco than several hundred average tourists, with the casino in Monte Square quite capable of taking a few hundred thousand Euros off the ultra rich in an evening or two. One URI from Italy was recently reported in a British newspaper as cashing up 700,000 Euros for one evening on the tables!
Monaco has the most expensive street in the world, and looks like she intends to keep at the top of the real estate league with London, Hong Kong and New York for some time.
As homeowners on both sides of the Atlantic watch to see if their property’s value takes a dive, two prime areas of real estate where the super-rich choose to live have seen price increases, showing there is still money in the system, albeit for a niche market.
Real estate watchers will know that top end London prices rose sharply in the last three years, but less well reported has been how New York’s Manhattan has fared. While London prices could fall this year, Manhattan could see rises.
Suprising given that New York real estate prices dropped by four per cent in 2007, and yet, like London, pockets of an area that is seeing property price reductions can see good inflation for existing homeowners hoping their property portfolio will continue to perform well.
In fact, when looking at the real estate markets for the two leading financial centres of New York and London, there seems to be a breakaway section of the property market that behaves differently from other areas in the city where the super rich don’t favour, and are small enclaves.
Monaco, a financial centre as it is a tax haven, and only a square mile in sze, is another enclave of the wealthy that sees property behave quite differently from neighbouring areas on the French Riveria such as Nice and St. Tropez.
‘We often hear politicians comment that the rich are getting richer’, comments a UK based property company who sells property in Monaco, ‘And not only are the rich getting richer they have a micro economic property bubble in Manhattan, London and Monaco where the number of properties being sold and their prices are completely independent, and seperate from the rest of Europe and the U.S.’
Monaco property prices rose by over fifteen per cent in 2007, and in Manhattan seventeen per cent – but astonishingly properties in Monaco priced at 10 million Euros and above (around US$ 15 million) acheived a price hike of over twenty five per cent.
Part of Monaco’s price increases in recent years, and for the medium term future too, is that new housing being built is for locals, and a strong new supply of openly available apartments is unlikely to happen for a decade – and with strong demand and little supply it suggests further price rises are likely for 2008.
British citizens have moved to Monaco in high numbers in recent years and as UK taxes show no sign of falling this large group is expected to swell further in 2008.
Previously a relatively small group of Monaco residents, the number of British people living in Monaco has doubled in the last two years since 2005, with some 3000 now claiming residency in Monaco.
Time will tell if London and Manhattan’s top properties also continue to rise in the year ahead, pushing the markets for the super rich still further away from other real estate trends.
Property values are on the rope in the US, UK and many other countries – and as house values slip there is little homeowners can do as their investment keeps sliding – but wait and hope that their economies recover, and boost buyers confidence enough to get the property markets going again.
But there are some areas where the property bubble just hasn’t burst yet, and they’re such niche markets that they might just withstand current economic woes seen elsewhere.
Real estate watchers will know that top end London prices rose sharply in the last three years, but less well reported has been how New York’s Manhattan has fared. While London prices are falling in many boroughs, one or two are still showing slight increases on their 2007 values, but overall London prices are expected to dip this year.
And while New York real estate prices could drop too this year, Manhattan could see gains in property prices.
Suprising given that New York real estate prices dropped by four per cent in 2007, and yet, like London, pockets of an area that is seeing property price reductions can see good inflation for existing homeowners hoping their property portfolio will continue to perform well.
In fact, when looking at the real estate markets for the two leading financial centres of New York and London, there seems to be a breakaway section of the property market that behaves differently from other areas in the city where the super rich don’t favour, and are small enclaves.
Monaco, a financial centre as it is a tax haven, and only a square mile in sze, is another enclave of the wealthy that sees property behave quite differently from neighbouring areas on the French Riveria such as Nice, Cannes and St. Tropez.
‘We often hear politicians comment that the rich are getting richer’, comments a UK based property company who sells property in Monaco, ‘And not only are the rich getting richer they have a micro economic property bubble in Manhattan, London and Monaco where the number of properties being sold and their prices are completely independent, and seperate from the rest of Europe and the U.S.’
Monaco property prices rose by over fifteen per cent in 2007, and in Manhattan seventeen per cent – but astonishingly apartments in Monaco priced at 10 million Euros and above (around US$ 15 million) acheived a price hike of over twenty five per cent.
Part of Monaco’s price increases in recent years, and for the medium term future too, is that new housing being built is for locals, and a strong new supply of openly available apartments is unlikely to happen for a decade – and with strong demand and little supply it suggests further price rises are likely for 2008.
British citizens have moved to Monaco in high numbers in recent years and as UK taxes show no sign of falling this large group is expected to swell further in 2008.
Previously a relatively small group of Monaco residents, the number of British people living in Monaco has doubled in the last two years since 2005, with some 3000 now claiming residency in Monaco.
Time will tell if London and Manhattan’s top properties also continue to rise in the year ahead, pushing the markets for the super rich still further away from other real estate trends, and creating enclaves that belong to the wealthy.
