World’s Super-Wealthy Spent $3 Trillion on Luxury Residential Real Estate

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The world’s wealthiest people now own residential property amounting to nearly $3 trillion. That was revealed in the latest Global Luxury Residential Real Estate Report prepared by Wealth-X and Sotheby’s International Realty. Moreover, this is the value only of the property purchased for personal use and not with for investment purposes.

The report focuses on luxury residential property of ultra-high net worth individuals. In other words, it examined residential real estate with a value of over $1 million that has been bought by people who have at least $30 million in assets. The value of luxury residential property has reached a record $3 trillion. That is 8% more compared to their estimated worth during the previous year and is more than the GDP of countries like the United Kingdom or France.

It is also estimated that the number of UHNW individuals today is exactly 211,275. Almost 80% of them have at least two residential properties. Furthermore, one in ten of the super rich people own five or more residences. It was also discovered that female UHNW individuals tend to spend more on properties compared to male UHNW individuals. The gap between them is 10%.

New York is the biggest and most important international hub for ultra-high net world residential property. UHNW individuals also love to buy homes in London (2), Hong Kong (3), Los Angeles (4) and San Francisco (5). The U.S., on the other hand, is the top residence country for UHNW individuals, followed by the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

According to the research, the richer an UHNW individual is, the more frequently he or she tends to change their home. For instance, those who have a net worth of between $30 million and $50 million sell their primary residences and move to new ones after more than 15 years. As for their secondary homes, they change them every 10 years on the average. Billionaires, on the other hand, change one of their residential real estate every three years.

The report also states that the percentage of UHNW individuals from Asia is quickly increasing. Moreover, their number is nearly two times bigger compared to that of UHNW individuals from the Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean… combined. Super rich people from Asia, however, showed a higher preference in buying land, instead of purchasing already existing residential properties.

Last, but not least, researchers predict that at least 50% or $1.5 trillion of the property assets of the UHNW individuals will be passed down to their heirs.