New York is the top global city for the world’s wealthy, with “a significant lead” over other hubs. Los Angeles is in a distant second place, followed by London, Hong Kong and Paris.

Amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and heightened political instability, the significance of the ‘home’ among the wealthy has never been so important: as places of work, for family and personal well-being.  Spotlight on the World’s Leading Markets for the Wealthy: Residential Real Estate 2021, sponsored by REALM, takes a holistic view of location, focusing on the potential of residential footprint, taking into account all of an individual’s residential addresses, not just their primary address.

“The priorities of HNW and UHNW consumers are inspiring a historic migration of this population and explore an evolution in primary and secondary home markets that represents new core values including health and well-being”

REALM Founder Julie Faupel

New York remains the global preeminent city of the wealthy – the Big Apple has a significant lead in the list of the world’s top 20 cities, with Los Angeles and London ranking second and third, respectively.

London, Hong Kong, and Paris rank the highest among non-US cities – London ranks third, just behind Los Angeles, followed by Hong Kong and Paris in fourth and fifth respectively.

Second-home destinations are dominated by cities in the ‘West’ – London has one of the highest shares of UHNW secondary homes, but away from the global cities, Miami leads the rest of real estate markets.

Monaco and Aspen have far and away the highest UHNW population densities – the city-state of Monaco has one UHNW footprint for every 29 residents, with Aspen not far behind.

There are key differences between UHNW primary residents and secondary homeowners in Hong Kong, London and New York – UHNW secondary homeowners are, on average, slightly younger and have a higher female representation than their primary resident counterparts.

Read more: Residential Real Estate 2021 – Leading Markets for the Wealthy