The Big Apple has retained its crown as the world’s priciest housing market.
New data has determined that, in 2022, more ultra-prime property transactions were conducted in New York City than anywhere else on Earth.
On Wednesday, real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman and consultant agency Knight Frank released the 17th edition of their annual Wealth Report, an analysis of current trends within the highest echelon of the residential real estate market. Among other findings, the report ranked the leading 10 global locations for home sales over $10 million (also known as “super-prime” sales) and $25 million (“ultra-prime” sales).
New York got the gold, with 244 super-prime sales and 43 ultra-prime sales in 2022. London took a close silver, tying for ultra-prime sales but boasting 21 fewer super-prime deals. Los Angeles took third place — followed by Hong Kong, Miami, Singapore, Palm Beach and Broward, Geneva, Sydney and Paris. (In total, the super-prime and ultra-prime transactions in the top 10 cities totaled an eye watering $36.1 billion.)
Despite once again taking the highest slot, New York’s real estate growth in 2022 was significantly smaller than other 1-percenter cities: While Los Angeles saw its market prices surge by 8%, and Miami saw its own go up by 22%, New York’s only saw 3% growth last year.
Overall, 2022’s 1-percenter real estate trends showed a gradual return to patterns disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, which experts believe will continue into next year.
“After the anomaly of 2021, 2022 was something of a transitional year,” said Knight Frank research partner Flora Harley. “Some pandemic trends continued to play out, while mounting headwinds promoted some to reflect on their assets and investment strategies. In 2023, it is likely we will see this process of normalization continue as transaction levels revert to pre-pandemic levels, down on the past two years but still highly active.”
Other report findings include the fact that prime market price growth is slowing, albeit not uniformly, with cities more impacted than resorts. The situation, while on the downswing from 2021, however, is not cause for enormous alarm.
“This isn’t 2008,” said the report.
Indeed, 2021 set a high bar but resorts, at least, are certainly still glowing from certain pandemic side effects, including the “transition to hybrid working, and the desire for a better work-life balance.”
Both sun and ski locations “from Dubai to Miami and most markets in between” shined bright last year, with an average of more than 8% annual price growth.