Residential Real Estate 2025: Spotlight on the World’s Leading Markets for the Wealthy
In a world where wealth knows no borders, understanding where the ultra wealthy live, and why, is more critical than ever.
Altrata’s Residential Real Estate 2025: Spotlight on the World’s Leading Markets for the Wealthy is the third edition of this report, sponsored by REALM, reveals the global footprint of the UHNW population (those with a net worth of $30m or more), uncovering the cities, enclaves and second-home markets that are shaping luxury trends, investment and influence.
Affluent families are no longer driven solely by lifestyle or prestige; they focus on security, legal reliability, and long-term strategy…
John Eric, Founding REALM Member, Co-Managing Partner, The Luxury Collective, Compass Washington D.C. and the UK
This report offers strategic insight into where today’s ultra wealthy individuals live and invest in real estate. For teams in private wealth, luxury real estate, philanthropy, education and premium brands, this report is a powerful tool to identify prime engagement opportunities based on residential footprint, not just primary residence. By understanding how UHNW individuals distribute their personal property portfolios across global cities and emerging hotspots, organizations can better target outreach, personalize their offerings and strengthen relationships with one of the world’s most mobile and influential demographics.
Our research explores the cities and second-home locations that matter most to the ultra wealthy, revealing patterns of movement, wealth preservation and lifestyle intent. Whether you’re an advisor guiding client portfolios or a luxury marketer curating location-driven campaigns, this data-driven perspective on global UHNW residential ownership trends provides critical context to serve a clientele that is more mobile and global than ever before and expects advisory-level insight at every touchpoint.
This report explores the pivotal role cities play in the lives of the ultra wealthy, analyzing key global trends and their influence on prime real estate. It ranks the world’s leading urban centers by total UHNW residential footprint, encompassing both primary residences and second homes.
What are the world’s top cities by total residential footprint of the ultra wealthy?
New York leads globally for total residential UHNW footprint
Taking account of the locations of UHNW individuals’ primary residence and all of their additional (secondary) homes, we reveal a number of important insights – including how New York is the top ranking global city by UHNW residential footprint.
Miami leads US cities with the most UHNW secondary-home owners
One key insight within Altrata’s Residential Real Estate 2025: Spotlight on the World’s Leading Markets for the Wealthy is that Miami has become the leading city globally for UHNW second-home owners, with more than 13,200 such individuals.
London leads global (excluding US) cities by secondary-home owners
Among the top-tier global UHNW cities, London stands out as a second-home location. By far the most popular location outside the US for ultra wealthy second-homers, London has the second-highest share of secondary-home owners (59%) among the top 10 UHNW cities, after Miami. London is followed by Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore and Geneva for non-US secondary home ownership locations.
Other key insights explored within Altrata’s Residential Real Estate 2025: Spotlight on the World’s Leading Markets for the Wealthy include:
- New York continues to lead the list of the world’s top 20 cities by UHNW residential footprint. New York has a total UHNW footprint of more than 33,200 individuals, with Los Angeles and Hong Kong following in second and third place with a footprint approaching 20,000 each.
- Monaco has the highest density of ultra wealthy residents and second-homers in the world. The city state on the French Riviera has one UHNW individual (as a primary resident or with a second home) for every 22 residents.
- Emerging hotspots include Lisbon and Abu Dhabi, while Aspen is ever popular among the wealthy elite.
- Today’s wealthy are more mobile and globally interconnected than ever, and this is a defining feature of today’s luxury real estate market. The homes of the wealthy are increasingly spread far and wide, reflecting the globalization of business, travel, technology, and also an increasingly uncertain world where real estate investment is seen as a critical component of a family’s wealth preservation and legacy strategy.
Relationships continue to be a crucial element to selling luxury goods, including real estate, but understanding the trends and leveraging data is critical for companies trying to make the most of their connections to the wealthy.
Methodology
This report leverages two of Altrata’s unique products: the Wealth-X Database, the world’s most extensive collection of curated research and intelligence on the wealthy, and RelSci’s Relationship Mapping Database.
Since the first edition was published in 2021 and the second edition was published in 2023, there have been significant changes across the global wealth map and the luxury real estate sector. In addition, Altrata’s data assets continue to expand in number, coverage and depth. The Wealth-X Database is now significantly larger by number of wealthy individuals and we have undertaken a full update to our Wealth and Investable Assets Model. As a result, the data in this report is not directly comparable with previously published numbers.
The full methodology can be found at the end of the report.
About the authors
Maya Imberg is the Head of Thought Leadership and Analytics at Altrata. She is responsible for spearheading the company’s thought leadership efforts and overseeing its analytics and predictive modeling services commissioned by clients. She joined Altrata’s Wealth-X in 2016 as Director of Custom Research responsible for secondary research, data analytics and branded content.
Maya has over fifteen years of experience in research, spanning market research, macroeconomics and financial services. Prior to joining Wealth-X, Maya held a variety of consultant and economist roles at the Economist Intelligence Unit and spent a number of years working for Datamonitor’s Financial Services practice. Maya holds an undergraduate and MSc degree in economics and comparative politics from the University of Pennsylvania and London School of Economics respectively.
Maeen Shaban is Director of Research and Analytics at Altrata, where he leads a revenue-generating analytics function delivering bespoke insights on global wealth and influence. With a background in financial engineering and advanced research into sovereign wealth strategies, Maeen brings deep analytical expertise and commercial acumen to the evolving landscape of private wealth.
He plays a central role in shaping Altrata’s global thought leadership program, co-authoring its flagship publications including the World Ultra Wealth Report and the Billionaire Census. His work draws on proprietary datasets, financial modelling, and targeted research to support strategic decision-making across the private wealth, luxury, and philanthropic sectors.
Maeen’s current focus includes wealth transfer trends, the role of single family offices, and the spending priorities of the ultra-wealthy—insights that are increasingly valuable to businesses navigating the expectations and behaviors of today’s most affluent individuals and families.