Foreign buyers “invested approximately $25 billion in cross-border residential real estate in 2014,” according to Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle, an investment management company that specializes in property.
From 2008 to 2012, average house prices in Hong Kong–ranked as the world’s least affordable city for housing–rose more than 117 percent, according to the Global Property Guide.
The average property in London costs $750,000, a one-year jump of 19 percent, according to Britain’s Office for National Statistics. Sotheby’s Auction House calculates there are 211,275 ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) on the planet–defined as those with $30 million or more in net assets, and 79 percent own at least two homes.
