The Super Rich are Peevish

CLICK to ENLARGE Super Rich Sources of Power

Follow the Money or "First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is." (Zen Aphorism, Donovan, etal)

The Super Rich are peevish (contrary) when it comes to accepting what comes out of the mouths of real estate promoters: "Vancouver is Unique". I heard this oft touted phrase from a genial Realtor last weekend at his west side Vancouver open house in a below street level grade "garden" condo asking well over $600,000 (~$650/sf); it looked to me like a good place for starting a mold farm. 

The tables presented here are from The Wealth Report 2012 created by Knight Frank and Citi Private Banking gleaned from opinions of their HNWI (High Net Worth Individuals) aka The Super Rich.

---

CLICK to ENLARGE Super Rich Important Cities

To gauge which cities are considered the most important to the world’s HNWIs, The Wealth Report surveyed Citi Private Bank’s wealth advisors around the world and Knight Frank’s global network of luxury property specialists. They asked which are the most important cities to their clients now, which will be the most important in 10 years, and which are growing in importance the fastest. In addition respondents were also asked to name the cities that they felt were global leaders in the fields of economic activity, political power, knowledge and influence, and quality of life.

Apparently very wealthy people enjoy Vancouver over Toronto for "Quality of Life" but as a destination for "Knowledge, Influence, Political Power or Economic Activity", Canadian cities don't make the list. When it comes to grading Canadian cities by the well heeled with respect to a trend to rising importance in the world, only Vancouver is currently viewed in ranking as important but with a bias to the downside as developing destinations move up the list.

If we look at the top tier cities in these two tables, it's evident that the Super Rich, the 1-2%, the Go-to-Folks want reliable established proven money and power centric cities (London, New York, Paris) or alternatively they look for emerging volatile liquidity centers (Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore) so they can leverage some change. 

Canada is a nice place to visit and perhaps dabble in real estate flipping during a manic heat wave but the real money is flowing elsewhere.

A new page devoted to Whale Watching and the Knight Frank data is here now.

---