Hong Kong, Tokyo home to the world’s most expensive ultra-prime houses

Billionaire-rich cities have sky-high luxury property prices? No coincidence, says Savills

With 79 billionaires calling it home, Hong Kong was named the city with the highest luxury residential real estate prices in the world, with Tokyo immediately bearing its rear.

The price of an ultra-prime home in the Chinese SAR stands at USD8,370 per square foot, marking a positive growth of 51 percent over a five-year period, according to a new report by Savills via Mansion Global.

The figure places Tokyo second in the world for top ultra-prime home values at USD6,350 per square foot, up 38 percent during that time.

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London has more billionaires than Tokyo—55 to the Japanese capital’s 22—but ultra-prime home prices in the British metropolis have dropped a staggering 16 percent over the last five years to end at USD3,400 per square foot.

A notch below London is New York where ultra-prime units commonly fetch USD3,220 per square foot or a rise of 15 percent in pricing over the same period. The city is home to 85 billionaires, the most among markets tracked by Savills.

“It is no coincidence that many of the cities with the largest number of billionaires are also among the most expensive cities in the world for ultra-prime residential property,” Sophie Chick, head of Savills World Research, was quoted as saying by Global.

Shenzhen and Beijing, however, have shown some of the fastest growth rates in ultra-luxury housing prices. The Greater Bay Area behemoth showed prices gaining 103 percent over the period to stand at USD2,010 per square foot, while the latter made a leap of 98 percent to stand at USD1,780 per square foot.