HONG KONG - New York is the world’s most popular place for the super rich to own a property, while tiny Singapore ranks eighth, according to a new report by data firm Altrata.

A total of 21,714 ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals – those worth more than US$30 million (S$40.6 million) – own either a primary or secondary residence in New York, the study found.

Next up in the popularity stakes are London and Hong Kong, where 15,907 and 15,175 of the world’s richest people own homes.

Los Angeles and Miami round out the top five, while a propensity for the wealthy to snap up second homes in Beijing puts the Chinese capital one spot ahead of Singapore, which has 7,471 UHNW residents.

Those living in Monaco are the most likely to have very rich neighbours. One in every 39 UHNW individuals is either a primary resident of the city state or the owner of a second home there.

In the United States, the highest concentration of super-rich residents is in Aspen, where the figure is one in 67 – giving the Colorado mountain resort a UHNW population density almost 15 times greater than New York.

American cities dominate the list of the most popular places for the very rich to own a home, taking a total of 14 of 20 spots. According to the report, that reflects the size of the country’s wealth market and its geographic and business diversity.

“These qualities offer considerable scope for wealthy individuals in search of a secondary home to stay in the country rather than look abroad,” the report said, and “mirrors a broader US trend over recent years of migration to smaller cities”.

BLOOMBERG