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Shanghai, Beijing to be third, fourth choices for billionaires: survey

Shanghai, Beijing to be third, fourth choices for billionaires: survey

Write: Zaida [2011-05-20]

SINGAPORE, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai and Beijing could become the third and fourth choices for the world's billionaires in ten years, though New York and London will remain the world's top two cities, a latest survey has found.

Singapore is now the most popular city in Asia Pacific for the globally wealthy individuals, local Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao reported Thursday. About 22 percent of the billionaires from East Asia said they would consider Singapore as their first choice when emigrating, compared with 17 percent for both Canada and Australia.

A research analyst at Knight Frank said Singapore is attractive thanks to its favourable tax policies and comparatively lower housing prices for luxury real estate.

Monaco remained the world's most expensive city in terms of luxury properties at 65,600 U.S. dollars per square meter, followed by London, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong, the report said. The luxury property price in Singapore is 27,100 U.S. dollars per square meter, lower than Hong Kong's 27,100 U.S. dollars.

The luxury property prices in the world's top cities also rose as collective worth of the global high net worth individuals (HNWI) community increased by 22 percent last year.

"It is not surprising that many of the world's luxury property markets benefitted. The biggest increase in wealth was in Asia Pacific, at 35 percent, and that is where we also recorded the biggest increases in property prices," said Andrew Shirley, editor of the report.

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