'Luxury Defined' Global Report

The World’s “Hottest” Luxury Real Estate Market Is…

Auckland overtakes Toronto as the world’s “hottest” luxury housing market in our annual global real estate report

The world’s “hottest” city for luxury real estate in 2016, based on our annual survey of 100 housing markets worldwide, is Auckland. As revealed in Luxury Defined, Christie’s International Real Estate’s report on global prime residential property markets, New Zealand’s largest city posted an incredible 63% year-on-year growth in million-dollar-plus home sales thanks to strong international and local buyer demand. 

(UPDATE: See which luxury housing market ranks as the world’s “hottest” in the 2017 Luxury Defined report).

The top-ranking luxury housing market in 2015, Toronto, ranked second in this year’s report. The Canadian city continues to thrive and saw an extraordinary 48% growth in year-on-year luxury home sales last year as well as a shrinking number of days on the market. Canada’s Pacific waterfront city Victoria took third place in this year’s rankings with exceptional year-on-year growth in luxury sales.

High-end second-home markets such as Spain’s beachfront paradise Valencia—which placed 4th in this year’s Luxury Thermometer—experienced strong growth in prime property sales from an uptick in tourism and “Golden Visa” overseas buyers. Wyoming’s mountain resort town Jackson Hole ranked 6th, after seeing increased interest from affluent domestic home buyers, in particular millennial and entrepreneurial buyers. After several years of softening prices, Sardinia’s waterfront enclave, Costa Smeralda, is also beginning to witness a positive uptick, ranking 7th overall.

San Francisco and Sydney, ranking 5th and 9th respectively, both saw continued luxury property sales growth along with strong interest from affluent international home buyers. Two housing markets positively impacted by an influx of high-net-worth (HNW) tech industry buyers—Portland and Stockholm—saw high demand for luxury property, yet inventory constraints hampered further growth.

Source: Luxury Defined 2016 by Christie's International Real Estate
Source: Luxury Defined 2016 by Christie's International Real Estate

Published annually, Christie’s International Real Estate’s Luxury Thermometer measures the “health” of the global US$1 million-plus property market across 100 primary housing and second-home resort destinations around the globe. Evaluating both growth and demand, the Luxury Thermometer ranks the top 10 performing luxury housing markets based on various metrics including absorption rates, average days on market for luxury homes, and the increase in the number of luxury property sales year-on-year. 

The Luxury Thermometer is created alongside the Luxury Index, which measures the relative ‘luxuriousness’ of the world’s top prime property markets. See which city topped this year’s Luxury Index rankings. 

Tour properties from Auckland, our “hottest” city for luxury real estate:


The double-entry doors welcome you into this turn-of-the-century, single-level solid masonry home which features five bedrooms, one large study, four bathrooms, and a powder room access off the spacious gallery hallway with lead light skylights.