Our so-called ‘leisure properties’ are the second homes and holiday homes of rich city dwellers. They are the only properties in this survey that are not situated in the world cities themselves. Some lie in countryside close to the city, others in rural areas further afield and some in resorts in other countries.

These are the properties of the billionaires and CEOs and do not form part of the SEU measurement, but they do feature strongly in the lifestyles of most wealthy global city dwellers. The availability and cost of a weekend bolthole can be an important consideration in the business decision-making of a busy executive. Like the costs of other residential property, they cannot be dismissed as mere incidentals in global location decision-making.

The leisure property lag

The disconnectedness between the World Class cities and their hinterlands remains. Leisure properties outside the city (and in some cases in different countries within the region) continue to underperform the urban centres.

Reversals of fortune

The key change seen in 2011 has been that the ‘new world’ resorts have slowed substantially, while the ‘old world’ second homes have stopped falling and are starting to rise at the same rate as the
‘new world’.

The most notable turnarounds in the old economies have been seen in the leisure property of our Sydney billionaire and global CEO (who hold leisure property in Palm Beach NSW, and the NSW Highlands), where big falls have ceased, and New York (the Hamptons) where price falls have turned into rises. Prices are now falling for Shanghai (whose wealthy hold leisure property in Phuket and Phnom Penh), Singapore (Bali and Penang), London (second homes in Oxfordshire and the West Country) and Tokyo (Hakone and Niseko).

Taken from
Insights: World Cities Review Spring 2012