Looking to buy a home and think
Toronto real estate is out of your league? It turns out, we don't even count when it comes to the really pricey places on the planet. In fact, no Canadian city even shows up on the list of the world's most expensive real estate locations. The number one position belongs to
London, England (left), where prime property costs an average of just over Cdn.$5,000 a square foot. (The city is already home to the most
expensive mansion on earth.) Next is the
Principality of Monaco, where you'll pay about $4,800 for the same property measurement.
The list is from the aptly named
"Wealth Report 2007", an annual publication that measures where the world's money is going. It claims people with lots of dough - roughly more than $11 million - know real estate is generally a good deal and are buying up the best locations. That's pushing some of the sites named in the report to record levels.
Also in the rankings for priciest purchases:
New York (third at about $3,500 a square foot) and
Hong Kong ($2,713 per square foot, in fourth spot).
Tokyo,
Cannes,
St Tropez,
Sydney,
Paris and
Rome complete the top 10. And if you've got money to burn and are looking for a place to ignite it, consider locations in Russia (like
Moscow and
St. Petersburg), China (
Beijing and
Guangzhou) and India (
Delhi and
Mumbai), which are all emerging on the world financial stage as major players. Real estate prices in all those areas have soared 40 to 50 percent in the last year.
And it's not over yet. "Over the next five years, we believe the trend of growing wealth and greater wealth concentration will continue," explains Liam Bailey of global property consultant firm
Knight Frank. "There will be a significant demand and supply imbalance in the best prime market locations."
So the next time you cringe when you hear what a T.O. home is worth, remember it could be worse. You could just be getting a real bargain for your bucks.
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