“The pandemic has significantly expanded the super-prime market,” according to recent data which updates on the world’s US$10mn-plus property market.
A total of 463 super-prime sales (above US$10mn/c.£7.6mn) took place across 11 tracked locations in Q2, marginally down on the previous quarter’s tally.
Across the 11 markets in the year to June 2024, the total value of super-prime sales came in at $33.4bn (c.£25.4bn). That’s around the same level as in the previous two years (annual totals have stayed between $32bn and $34bn since the end of 2022). Comparing current activity with pre-pandemic times shows a “substantial increase” in ultra-rich home-buying: The total value of $10mn sales has leapt from $20.1bn in 2019 to $33.4bn in 2024, and Knight Frank expects volumes to “tick higher” through 2025. Things are calmer than during the Covid-era luxury property boom, though, when super-prime sales surged to nearly $44bn in 2021.
Palm Beach, Miami and Dubai are particular hotspots. In Dubai, the super-prime market has exploded, from just 23 sales above US$10mn in 2019 to 436 deals in the year to June 2024. Geneva has also seen a big rise, with sales jumping from 59 in 2019 to 102 in the most recent period. Palm Beach has gone from 50 to 138, and Miami’s big-ticket deal haul leapt from 41 to 149. “The growth in the super-prime market is driven by a broader increase in global wealth,” with a 19% rise in ultra-high-net-worth individuals over the past five years, particularly in the U.S. and the Middle East, where the UHNWI population increased by 8% and 6.2% respectively in 2023. Just 36 deals were recorded in London above the $10mn mark in Q2 of this year, well down on the levels we were seeing in 2023; on an annualised basis, 214 such sales went through in the 12 months to last quarter, the lowest total since 2020 and nearly a third down on 2021’s bumper crop of 313.
