It’s that time of the year when various reports and stats reveal exactly who the richest people in the world are, and how they spend their money.

We brought you the Forbes’ World’s Richest People list, with Jeff Bezos still in the top spot, and then there are the world’s richest Millennials.

Someone new is holding the title of ‘richest woman in the world‘ and of course, to bring things a little closer to home, here’s a list of South Africa’s richest business execs.

Now that you’re caught up with who has the money, let’s move on to how they spend it.

Property is always a decent investment and luxury property is the way to go if you have the cash.

According to BusinessTech, property group Knight Frank has released its 2019 Wealth Report showing how the world’s ultra-wealthy live.

One of the main focuses of the report is the luxury residential property market, as well as the cost of property around the world.

According to Knight Frank, Monaco is still one of the most expensive places to live on earth – with one in every three people in the principality classified as a millionaire.

This is reflected in the region’s property prices as Knight Frank estimates that it costs an average of $1 million to buy 16 square metres of property.

In comparison, those living in Hong Kong ($1 million for 22 square metres) and New York ($1 million for 31 square metres) can expect to pay a relative fortune.

“Burgeoning rental demand, limited supply and, in most cases, buoyant local economies mean four European cities, led by Edinburgh (+10.6%) and Berlin (+10.5%) make the top ten, despite slower growth across the eurozone,” Knight Frank said.

As you can see from this infographic, Cape Town is further down the list.

That said, it’s still one of the most expensive cities for property in the world, with $1 million buying you around 177 square metres of prime property in the city:

Knight Frank predicts that Cape Town’s property prices will continue to rise as global economies shift over the next few months – as you can see in the infographic depicting expected growth below.

“Trade tensions, political events and an increasing debt burden, alongside rising interest rates, will conspire to ensure that there is a slowdown in economic growth across the world in 2019.”

“Of the cities that we forecast, we expect that five (Buenos Aires, Dubai, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Shanghai) will see prices fall this year, two (New York and Singapore) will see prices remain static and that the remainder will see prices rise – albeit modestly.

“Key European cities, along with Cape Town lead with the highest growth. These are increasingly popular investment hubs for European and global investors, with a growing presence from Chinese buyers.”

In other words, best to snap up property now, and if you already have it, hang on to it for the time being.

[source:businesstech]