New York remains the most expensive real estate market in the world: report

The Big Apple has retained the crown of the most expensive housing market in the world.

New data has shown that in 2022, there were more luxury real estate transactions in New York than anywhere else on Earth.

On Wednesday, real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman and consultancy Knight Frank released the 17th edition of their annual wealth report, which analyzes current trends in the upper echelon of the residential real estate market. Among other results, the report lists the top 10 global locations with over $10 million in home sales (also known as “super premium” sales) and $25 million (“ultra premium” sales).

New York went gold with 244 super-premium sales and 43 ultra-premium sales in 2022. London took silver, equal in sales to ultra-premium, but with 21 deals less than super-premium. Los Angeles came in third, followed by Hong Kong, Miami, Singapore, Palm Beach and Broward, Geneva, Sydney and Paris. (A total of super- and ultra-prime deals in the top 10 cities totaled $36.1 billion.)

Despite New York taking the top spot again, NYC real estate growth in 2022 was significantly less than other 1 percent cities: while in Los Angeles, market prices rose 8% and in Miami – by 22%, in New York last year the growth was only 3%.

Overall, 1 percent real estate trends in 2022 have shown a gradual return to patterns disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, which experts say will continue into next year.

“After the 2021 anomaly, 2022 has been something of a transitional year,” said Flora Harley, research partner at Knight Frank. “Some pandemic trends have continued to emerge, while increased headwinds have prompted some to rethink their assets and investment strategies. In 2023, we will likely see this normalization process continue as transaction levels return to pre-pandemic levels, lower than the last two years but still very active.”

Other findings of the report include the fact that primary market price growth is slowing, albeit unevenly, with cities suffering more than resorts. However, the situation, although in a state of decline since 2021, is not of great concern.

“This is not 2008,” the report says.

Indeed, 2021 has set the bar high, but resorts are at least still glowing with certain side effects of the pandemic, including “shifting to hybrid work and striving for a better work-life balance.”

Both sunny and ski resorts “from Dubai to Miami and most markets in between” shone bright lights last year, with average annual price increases of more than 8%.