Luxury Defined:An insight into the market for high-end homes

Residential real estate is a tale of two markets - luxury and everything else. To fully understand the luxury property market, it's helpful to consider the following classifications.

Primary MarketsResort Markets

Entry price for luxury homes highest in economic hubs

The entry price for luxury homes varies greatly by market, from $750,000 in Durban, South Africa, to $8 million in Beverly Hills.

Average entry price for a luxury home by market type

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So what does luxury look like?

What do you get for $5 million around the world?

Click to see properties

How long does it take to sell a luxury home?

Average number of days a luxury property spent on the market (as of December 31, 2014)

Global Economic Hub

Metropolitan

Suburban

Weekender

Lifestyle & Regional Resort

'Jet Set' Destination

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Luxury homes sold fastest in Toronto and San Francisco

Average number of days a luxury property spent on the market (as of December 31, 2014)

Toronto

San Francisco

Los Angeles

New York

Sydney

London

Paris

Miami

Hong Kong

Luxury property, in general, took longer to sell due to a smaller pool of qualified buyers. In Miami, for example, it took an average of 80 days for a home to sell, but 142 days for a luxury property.

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$100 million set the bar for trophy home sales in 2014

Although prices are generally higher in the city, the world's top 3 home sales in 2014 were not in Global Economic Hubs - and two of the top three were located in New York City's surrounding areas.

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Luxury Defined

There is really no one definition of luxury - much like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder. From $1.2 million entry level properties in Florida to the ultimate $147 million 'weekender' in the Hamptons, the definition of luxury changes depending on where you are.

If you have the means, there's a broad enough range across the markets for you to find your own definition of luxury.

All prices in USD; exchange rates based on an average for the year.
Source: Christie's Global Luxury Real Estate White Paper 2015.
© Christie's International Real Estate

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