{"id":482185,"date":"2021-04-09T17:00:54","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T15:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=482185"},"modified":"2021-04-09T13:41:14","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T11:41:14","slug":"these-are-the-most-expensive-places-in-the-world-for-the-wealthy-and-how-south-africa-compares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/482185\/these-are-the-most-expensive-places-in-the-world-for-the-wealthy-and-how-south-africa-compares\/","title":{"rendered":"These are the most expensive places in the world for the wealthy – and how South Africa compares"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wealth management group Julius Baer has published its Lifestyle Index, highlighting the cost of luxury goods around the world.<\/p>\n

The index is based on a basket of 12 consumer goods and eight luxury services that represent discretionary purchases by high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) globally in 2020.<\/p>\n

The index is not intended to represent the comprehensive spending patterns of HNWIs, but rather to provide an indication of how selected goods and services are priced around the world.<\/p>\n

This is used as the basis for further analysis of developments in HNWI consumption patterns and lifestyle considerations.<\/p>\n

The data was gathered between July and September 2020 and prices included all taxes and ancillary fees and were converted from the local currency to USD on a fixed date.<\/p>\n

The index shows that Shanghai is the priciest city in the world for HNWIs, where prices here have risen 6% in the past year in dollar terms \u2013 far more than the global average of 1%.<\/p>\n

Business-class flights have seen one of the most extreme jumps in cost \u2013 up 82% in USD terms \u2013 as the travel sector attempted to offset the effect of Covid19 restrictions.<\/p>\n

It is also believed that Shanghai, alongside Cape Town, will be the most prosperous high-end property market in the world in 2021, with prices rising 5%.<\/p>\n

The top of the list is dominated by other Asian countries, with Tokyo and Hong Kong ranked second and third respectively.<\/p>\n

The top ten list is as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Shanghai<\/li>\n
  2. Tokyo<\/li>\n
  3. Hong Kong<\/li>\n
  4. Monaco<\/li>\n
  5. Taipei<\/li>\n
  6. Zurich<\/li>\n
  7. Paris<\/li>\n
  8. London<\/li>\n
  9. Singapore<\/li>\n
  10. New York<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Overall, living a luxury lifestyle around the world became only about 1% more expensive in 2020, with the rich increasingly turning to conscious choices that may result in fairer prices for producers, Julius Baer said.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n

    How South Africa compares\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The one African city that is included in the report is Johannesburg, which has replaced Mumbai as the most affordable city in this year\u2019s index.<\/p>\n

    South Africa\u2019s largest city offers exceptional value for almost every item, despite a 5% jump in weighted average prices in local currency terms, Julius Baer said.<\/p>\n

    A sharp decline in the value of the South African rand has resulted in a 10% price drop in US dollar terms.<\/p>\n

    The below table shows how Johannesburg’s prices compare to the rest of the countries on the index:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    “Johannesburg has a small luxury industry, relative to its size. The total luxury goods market was worth $693 million in 2020, a per capita spend of just $12. It is set to experience muted growth of 3.7% in 2021.<\/p>\n

    “Like most things in Joburg, high-end residential property is very affordable, costing a fraction of the international average. Prices have remained stable, with demand on the rise. Buyers are seeking out exclusive apartments boasting modern, hi-tech security.”<\/p>\n

    Julius Baer noted that Johannesburg is the economic hub of South Africa, many companies are headquartered there, and the affluent suburbs have attracted many successful businesspeople.<\/p>\n

    “Interest rate cuts introduced in early 2020 also lowered the cost of monthly repayments, making home ownership a more attractive prospect.”<\/p>\n

    “The effects of the pandemic notwithstanding, the South African economy has been in a downward cycle for 85 months in a row, while unemployment reached highs of 30 per cent last year. Any recovery is likely to be slow and protracted.”<\/p>\n

    \n

    Read: SARS signs heavy-hitter to help take on wealthy South Africans<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Wealth management group Julius Baer has published its Lifestyle Index, highlighting the cost of luxury goods around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":482191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[26,14640],"class_list":["post-482185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wealth","tag-headline","tag-julius-baer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482185"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":482199,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482185\/revisions\/482199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}