How Much Real Estate Will $1 Million Buy?
Quick Summary Audio “There are three things that matter in property: location, location, location” Those are words from Harold Samuel, a British real-estate mogul from the 1900s. Broadly speaking, it’s a quote that still holds true—property values in the world’s best cities have
“There are three things that matter in property: location, location, location”
Those are words from Harold Samuel, a British real-estate mogul from the 1900s. Broadly speaking, it’s a quote that still holds true—property values in the world’s best cities have always been worth a pretty penny. Of course, certain cities simply hold more appeal for wealthy people, and as a result, competition in the prime real estate market can be fierce.
The scarcity of real estate is driven by trends such as urbanization — the migration of people into cities. While the first examples of cities were built thousands of years ago, it was only recently that the majority of the population began to live in them. In fact, the urban population just overtook the rural population for the first time in 2007. To learn more about the sky-high cost of prime property in cities, the infographic on the opposite page visualizes data from Knight Frank’s Prime International Residential Index (PIRI 100).
What’s a Million Dollars Good For? The following table lists the number of square feet that you could buy with one million dollars in various cities. There are more cities on this list than in the graphic to create a more
City
Country
Total sf of prime property $1 million U.S. dollars can buy
Monaco
Monaco
157
Hong Kong
China
229
London
United Kingdom
329
New York
United States
358
Singapore
Singapore
381
Geneva
Switzerland
399
Sydney
Australia
446
Shanghai
China
452
Los Angeles
United States
454
Paris
France
455
Beijing
China
601
Tokyo
Japan
692
Berlin
Germany
786
Miami
United States
833
Melbourne
Australia
907
Madrid
Spain
1136
Mumbai
India
1164
Dubai
UAE
1469
Cape Town
South Africa
2363
São Paulo
Brazil
2759
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