In a recent Transparency International Report, author Adam Ross reported that almost half of Vancouver’s premier homes were bought using false fronts, such as shell companies and other methods, and that such tactics have increased in the past five years. More specifically, of the 100 most expensive homes listed in the report, 29 were held through shell companies, at least 11 were owned through nominees (listed as students or housewives on land titles), and a further six were tagged for anonymous beneficiaries.

More than 1,404 miles away in the United States, a similar problem exists with billionaires such as Paulo Octávio Alves Pereira, a Brazilian developer and politician, who was indicted for corruption in his home country and promptly buried his ill-won cash in American mansions.

“The guys who want to clean up dirty money are always going to try to penetrate the system at its weakest spot,” said Joe Kilmer, a former Drug Enforcement Administration special agent. “You’ve got so much real estate being bought and sold in South Florida. It’s easy to hide in plain sight.”

Individuals like Pereira bury their money in “towers of secrecy,” as The New York Times refers to them, mostly located in Upper Manhattan and Miami-Dade. As in Vancouver, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has begun investigating such havens by requiring title insurance companies to identify the individuals behind companies who pay cash for homes valued for more than $3 million. The B.C. Ministry of Finance goes further and requires foreign buyers to disclose their citizenship and corporations to provide identification and citizenship, while property owners are asked whether any of the trustees involved are foreign.

Although anonymous investors dip-and-duck investigations, such federal initiatives may be the first signs that launderers are nearing the end of their game. Between the federal crackdown on secret cash home deals and strengthening anti-money-laundering rules around the world, criminals will have to find another place to stash their cash.

As Teresa Kinney, CEO of the Miami Association of Realtors, told USA Today last year, "That's not what we want for our market."

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Two months ago, the average price of flats in Shanghai had tapped 50,000 yuan ($7,278) per square meter, according to China Daily. The paper also noted that trending prices for an approximately 968-square-foot unit in Shanghai had scored 25 times more than the average family was earning.

Chinese developers followed the Hong Kong trend.

Two years ago, Charles Chan of property advisory firm, Savills, told Property Report:

“Theoretically, tiny flats can achieve higher prices per square foot because of the smaller lump-sum amount [required to buy them].” He added, “From the developers’ point of view, strong demand for these flats will also reduce their investment risk, so why not build more small flats?”

One development agency that concurred was Sun Hung Kai Properties, which built its luxury 3,400-unit housing project in Sham Shui Po, with condos that featured 160 square feet of usable living space, excluding the kitchen and the bathroom.

Back in Shanghai, new rules that strive to calm Shanghai's overheated market by calling for second-home buyers to pay 50 percent to 70 percent upfront payments influence investors to eye “compact luxury.” These homes represent, according to the state-run China Overseas Land and Investment Ltd., figments of luxury properties that used to sprawl approximately 2,691 square feet to 4,306 square feet but have since shrunk to little more than half that size.

While some luxury buyers still prefer bigger units to maximize their investment, a growing number of young professionals welcome their modern "dig" in the city. These small and comfy condos could be a long-term trend, as China continues to inflate its city and housing prices.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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Radical changes in tax law are gaining traction in the House of Representatives aided by the certainty of Trump becoming president. Some of the proposals may make it cheaper to rent homes than to buy, especially if tax benefits on real estate disappear.

A viral article in the Wall Street Journal, published December 27 by Peter Grant and Laura Kusisto, discussed the concerns that real estate industry leaders feel in response to a Republican blueprint, passed in June 2016, to overhaul U.S. tax law.

"Among other things, the GOP blueprint calls for the elimination of the deduction for state and local property tax. Industry executives also worry the plan could severely cripple the mortgage interest deduction—long considered a sacred cow of U.S. tax policy," the article stated.

One of the hopes of prospective homeowners is that, along with the joy of moving into their new home, they can also deduct many home-related expenses. The biggest tax break is reflected in the mortgage you make each month, since your interest may be deductible. Then, there’s the standard deduction, in which income is exempt from federal tax and can replace itemized deduction.

According to the Wall Street Journal's explanation for the changes, Republicans would nearly double the standard deduction that taxpayers receive, which would eliminate the need to itemize deductions (like mortgage interest payments), which would, in turn, disincentivize homeownership. Mr. Trump proposed an even larger standard deduction.

The GOP plan also calls for eliminating the mortgage interest deduction for businesses, while preserving it for individuals. Finally, it plans to eliminate depreciation for businesses.

The article has elicited a furor from real estate experts who argue that results may approximate those of the 1986 tax changes, which eliminated double depreciation on commercial property and changed the way investors could take write-offs by capping the loss for passive investors. The result was that local and state newspapers listed foreclosures for months. The policy crippled real estate for a decade.

If the GOP’s blueprint materializes, fewer mom-and-pop homeowners will invest in real estate, since most do so for the tax incentives, and these will be upended. Wouldn’t the majority prefer to rent rather than own, particularly if renting is cheaper and tax benefits for owning have been eliminated? Furthermore, what does this mean for the housing market and for the broader economy?

Questions such as these have caused a lot of uncertainty in the real estate sector.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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Down by the waterfront in West Vancouver, luxury home sales in 2016 topped well over $30 million. The top assessment for an 11,000-square-foot home was $35.2 million this year, up from $29.7 million last year. The second highest assessment was worth $31.2 million, up from $24.7 million in 2016. The third highest assessment was for a $30.9 million home on the Dundarave waterfront, up from $26.5 million last year.

Knight Frank’s recent Prime Global Cities Index reported that luxury property prices in Vancouver are rising at a rate that’s four to 14 times faster than the average in the rest of the world. Prices for prime property rose 24.5 percent in one year. By comparison, Toronto came in 12th place with an 8-percent increase, while New York City and London saw prices rise 2.8 percent  and 1 percent, respectively.

Real estate experts suggest various reasons for Vancouver’s stratospheric prices. According to the Knight Frank report: "A lack of supply, coupled with foreign demand, spurred on by a weaker Canadian dollar explain [Vancouver's] stellar performance.”

A new report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. attributed the inflated markets to low interest rates and robust population growth. Then, of course, Chinese buyers drive up housing prices, with as many as 5 to 10 percent of greater Vancouver real estate transactions going to foreign nationals.

Most of the buyers are Chinese executives who point to education as reason for buying in Vancouver. One Shanghai high-tech executive told Techno.id, a Turkish tech news outlet, that he bought a 6,000-square-foot home in the area, that he commutes monthly back to Shanghai, and that the sacrifice is worth it because he wants his daughter to have a western education. “I also feel safer putting my treasure outside China,” he added.

Asian capital is making a Vancouver a resort town for the wealthy, while stirring racism from locals who say Chinese are making their famously livable city unlivable.

A CBC survey released last month found two-thirds of respondents want the government to intervene to cool house price growth. Single-family homes have become the most expensive in the city.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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Townhouses and co-ops were on the market for an average of 318 days––up two months from 2015. Properties in that area that cost more than $4 million also saw an 18 percent decrease in sales from 2015, according to the same report.

In contrast, Manhattan's condominiums made a brisker sale for several reasons.

Downtown properties have attractive amenities and less restrictions. Frills include gyms, pet spas, and yoga rooms. Conversely, buyers of co-ops have to tip-toe to board decisions that include vetting buyers and regulating everything, from how much cash purchasers must have in their banks, to the weight of their dogs.

Then again, events such as Brexit, China's rules on capital outflows, the uncertainty over the presidential election, and volatility of financial markets may further have unsettled Manhattan's luxury market, says Hall F. Willkie, president of Brown Harris Stevens.

The Olshan report attributed uptown's declining high-end sales numbers to “classic price resistance." That may not entirely be the case.

Jacky Teplitzky, a broker with Douglas Elliman, says, “It used to be, if you were a partner at Goldman Sachs or a partner in a major law firm, what did you need? You needed a Park Avenue address, end of story. It’s not like that anymore.”

The Olshan report stated: "[There’s] a continuing market shift in the luxury market to new condos that offer freedom of ownership, new infrastructure, robust amenities, and some hip architecture."

At one time, the neighborhood near Central Park was noted for trophy residents, such as Oaktree Capital Group’s Howard Marks and Millennium Management founder Israel Englander, both owners at 740 Park Ave., a 1931 limestone tower on the Upper East Side.

But the area is no longer the Park Avenue of Billionaires’ Row, where the Gadsby glitterati lived. Investors are sitting on their wallets; some sellers have made drastic price cuts. Downtown is where the market seems to currently be.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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The country’s richest Russian buyers may soon be flying in to snap up mansions and condos in New York and Miami.

Knight Frank recently noted that the number of requests submitted by Russians for elite real property in New York and Miami rose 35 percent after Trump won the presidential elections.

It was wealthy Russians who kept Trump buoyant during the recession of 2008. Ekaterina Rybolovleva, daughter of billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, purchased the then most expensive condo in Manhattan, New York, for $88 million. Her father bought a $95 million beachfront estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2008. It was sold by Trump.

What is it that Russian buyers desire in these bustling, luxury real estate markets?

"A few customers are interested in the opportunity to buy property in development projects of Donald Trump,” Marina Kuzmina, head of international sales at Knight Frank Russia, told CNN.

They're looking to invest in the Trump brand. “When Russians get here, the first thing they ask is, Where is the Trump building? ” said Ilya Masarsky, a Russian-born real estate developer, according to The Washington Post. “They know the Trump brand; they know Trump. They want to live where he lives.”

Russian buyers seek vacation homes, as well as investment properties and spend between $500,000 and $5 million on an estate. Half of these prospective buyers look into small apartments and studios that cost between $500,000 and $2,000,000. Twenty-five percent of the inquires center around two-bedroom apartments worth $2 million and penthouses that cost $4 million.

Russian investors bought dozens of American apartments in 2013-2014, when the United States was reportedly their fifth most popular destination for elite property. Although they left in 2015, when politics had soured between the two nations, now, they’re back in full force.

This history between Russia and the United States has been a stormy affair, but if the newfound relationship between Vladimir Putin and Trump makes the U.S. richer, developers and sellers will profit.

Some parts of Miami are already called “Little Moscow."

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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On December 1, Hilton Hotels & Resorts debuted its first Brooklyn hotel, according to a press release.

Located in Boerum Hill on a site that was formerly a rope factory in the 19th century, Hilton Brooklyn New York is also home to an on-site restaurant and bar, Black Walnut, which is helmed by celebrity chef Robert Newton.

Step into the Stonehill & Taylor-designed hotel, and you’ll almost be forgiven for thinking you can cast your line and start fishing. There’s a pervasive sea environment, purposely created to recreate the building’s past. Walk through the lobby on a herringbone marble floor that is crisscrossed with accents of black, burgundy, and saturated navy to resemble the sea. Brush aside the low millwork wall of rope that screens the reception and the lobby. Wheel your suitcases along corridors that are carpeted in warm rope motif. Within any of the 196 rooms and suites, guests will see the same navy carpeting with a beige, winding rope pattern. There are ivory walls, the color of caverns or starved rock, as well as rope-framed mirrors in the bathrooms. There's a mirrored triptych screen print with a Brooklyn Bridge marathon scene in the elevator lobby.

Corridors have vintage Brooklyn map prints. Guest rooms are understated and airy, with white linen walls, charcoal carpets with a cream knotted pattern, and walnut furniture with white beadboard trim. Beds have tall walnut headboards. An accent wall wrapping the outer corner is covered in a custom black-and-white toile pattern, composed of historically inspired nautical vignettes hand-drawn by designers at Stonehill & Taylor. The rooms are supposed to resemble yacht and ship interiors.

Still, guests will not forget that they're staying in Brooklyn, New York. The bar area, for one, has two metal-framed maps of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan, which frame its nooky seating area. The map scenes, sketched by the designers at Stonehill & Taylor, were welded in a Brooklyn metal workshop, while the 68-seat restaurant is designed with black walnut-paneled walls, ivory marble floors, and polished benches.

New York’s shipping industry has all but vanished, and Hilton Brooklyn New York is the relic of that past.

Images courtesy of Hilton Brooklyn New York

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1060 Stillwater Drive

Luxury homeowners in Miami know that climate change is real. Generally, those with the bucks tend to look for homes near the water. In Miami, though, the water has become an intruder, with prospective waterfront buyers looking into issues of emergency power and sump pumps before pitching near water’s edge.

Over the years, the floods in South Florida have claimed palatial lands as their own. Each year, another homeowner's palm tree gets swept away, along with more of his land, more of her garden patch. Water washes under security gates and pools around Buicks and Fords.

Flooding was first noted in 1926, when the Category 4 Great Miami Hurricane inundated Miami Beach. In the 1930s and the 1960s, the city built a storm drainage system to fight the problem. At that time, floods were referred to as a “recurring nuisance” that only occurred infrequently. But over the past two decades, frequent flooding and the science of climate change suggests otherwise. Temperature rises. So does water.

"This is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced," reported geo-spatial analyst, Keren Prize Bolter, earlier this year. "In South Florida, the water is coming in not just at the sides. It comes up from underground. Not even seawalls will stop the flow of water. This is bigger than the government."

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sea levels could rise by more than three feet by the end of this century. The United States Army Corps of Engineers projects that they could rise by as much as five feet; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts up to six and a half feet.

Hal Wanless, chairman of the University of Miami’s geological-sciences department, says their estimations are too low. He's studied South Florida for more than 50 years and has concluded that the region has less than half a century to go until most of it will be completely submerged.

Those who suffer will not be only property owners but also developers, real estate lenders, and the financial institutions that bundle and resell mortgages.

Miami Beach has already spent something around a hundred million dollars and is planing on spending some hundred billion more. Wanless believes the funding is futile, since the water will overwhelm their efforts. Soon, banks will stop writing mortgages for luxury condos that line the waterfront, insurers will stop selling policies, and coastal residents will ditch their million-dollar properties and head for dryer ground.

In Mar-a-Lago, President-elect Donald Trump owns a 20-acre site that stretches between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. In 2012, Mr. Trump denounced global warming as a Chinese-influenced hoax and appointed Myron Ebell as director of America’s Environmental Protection Agency. Ebell disbelieves that global warming exists and is caused by people.

But given the possibility that global warming is the force driving these mighty waves, water is going to have a victory surge for the next four years. It will continue to soak up more land, while more Floridians relocate inland or barricade their estates from floods.

It's possible, too, that property values might go under water long before the properties do.

Image courtesy of Monica Venegas

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Londons's Spitalfields neighborhood has come a long way from once being the abode of homeless vagrants, prostitutes, and Jack the Ripper, to the luxury home of today’s high-end homebuyers who settle for millions.

Its earliest grave belongs to a 25-year-old Roman matron, who was buried with her ornate jet and glass grave goods. Spitalfields began as a religious and commercial region, getting its money from the silk industry that was established by French protestant (Huguenot) refugees in the 17th century. The next 200 years saw magnificent estates that catered to master weavers, who paid top pound for a home in that region. These artisans also set up mansions around newly-created Spital Square.

Fortunes changed in the Victorian era, when the merchant dwellings degenerated into multi-occupied slums, and a cholera epidemic slaughtered scores of locals. By the late 19th century, the region resonated with its sanguinary activities of individuals, such as Jack Sheppard, a highway man and multiple absconders, who roamed its streets.

Today’s visitors will find an urban renewal of old merchant homes that have been conserved by the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust. Modern Spitalfields has large modern offices, boutique shopping, expensive restaurants next to Cockney-knees-up boozers, wine bars, and one old public toilet for sale to the tune of £1 million ($1,241,100). The city hopes to turn it into a pub. Tourists will also find Jack the Ripper tours, and a large increase in property prices. In fact, a recent WSJ reports that “Spitalfields's real estate is outperforming rival neighborhoods in prime central London and that today’s Spitalfield once shabby townhouses attract premium prices.”

One such house, priced at approximately $3.66 million, on Fournier Street measures 3,060 square feet. It consists of four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a secluded terrace. In Spital Square, a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment measuring 546 square feet starts at about $863,000, while a two-bedroom, two-bathroom can cost $1.18 million.

It’s curious to know what Mary Wollstonecraft, Samuel Gompers, and George Peabody, who all lived in Spitlfields and aimed to help the poor, would have thought. It was Peabody who built the Peabody Donation Fund, today's Peabody Trust, that promises to provide good quality housing "for the deserving poor" in London.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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"The Manor," listed with Hilton & Hyland for $200,000,000, is among the most exceptional properties in the United States.

Almost four decades ago, noteworthy attorney and financier Leonard Ross bought a 30,000-square-foot bucolic Beverly Hills estate at almost $2 million, according to Variety.com, at a time when the median home price was $38,000.

It was a ritzy pink stucco residence, and partly because it had belonged to newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, it was the most expensive property listed on the open market in all of the United States at the time. When people asked him why he, as a single man needed such a large home, he said he’d grow into it.

This month, Ross is listing the now 50,000-square-foot mansion and its five-acre compound for $195 million, a record sales price even for Los Angeles, where Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion went for $100 Million four months ago. That doesn't factor in the profit that Ross made from occasionally leasing out his property for upwards of $600,000 per month, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In his book The Truth About Money financial consultant Ric Edelman advises homeowners to “have as big a mortgage as you can get and never pay it off.” Reasons include the fact that the longer you live in the house, the more likely it is that your property will appreciate. On his Edelman Financial Services website, Edelman tells readers: “Having a long-term mortgage lets your equity grow while your home’s value grows.”

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal supported Edelman's view of home value that increases with age. The publication quoted examples of Ross and others who exited with millions when, in some cases, they initially paid thousands.

Over in the Hamptons, top-producing Hamptons broker, Matthew Breitenbach, describes corners of that bucolic region as resembling ”an old captain's house that’s beautifully renovated." He says, "The best village corner.. It used to be a blue-collar little fishing village that’s now vibrant, growing, unique. There’s tremendous development and a lot of good inventory.”

The Hamptons in Long Island, New York, are enormously expensive with median home prices at $1,595,000, according to Zillow’s current home value index. It wasn't like that in 1978, when Yvonne Dunleavy purchased a modest home in the quiet village of Sagaponack for $140,000. In the 1990s, she rented it to to John F. Kennedy Jr. and some of his family. She’s listing it now for a mouthwatering $5.75 million, according to the same article in The Wall Street Journal.

A lot can change over the course of homeownership, but prices have a tendency to climb.

Image courtesy of Hilton & Hyland

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In modern residences, luxury bathrooms are more often designed with floor-to-ceiling, uncurtained windows, through which outsiders may observe the exposed occupant undressing, toweling, or stepping into the tub.

“Well, I guess we could watch each other read the newspaper,” one amused wife told her broker, according to The New York Times. Of course, most of these bathrooms are situated high enough that only the birds have the privileged view.

The benefit to bathroom users is that it offers them dizzying, sweeping views of the outdoors. The natural light is also beneficial for the body. After all, says designer Clodagh, “You spend eight or 10 hours in there a week, and it’s one of the places where you can refresh, renew, and get natural light. The skin is the largest organ on your body, and taking in natural light is very propitious for health and wellness.”

There’s great light during the day, notes Barbara Sallick, co-founder of Waterworks, but then again, there's the coldness of a masculine city at night, combined with a generally sleek, glass-heavy design. “[There's] nothing to make you feel closed, warm, and private," Sallick says. "And there is the cityscape that is in itself sort of active, so how do you ratchet that down? All the glass and all the white is beautiful, and it’s hygienic, but it’s cold. It feels more like an operating room.”

There’s that to consider, as well as the privacy one may want, at least sometimes, during the day.

For those who can afford it, there's the luxury option of installing "dueling toilets" in home bathrooms. These intimate toilets face each other in their respective transparent glass boxes, from which users can gaze at each other.

At 737 Park Avenue––which is designed with these, open, floor-to-ceiling glass bathrooms––in Manhattan, New York, only three buyers chose the glass-free commode. The rest opted for a privacy banner, a stripe of frosted glass.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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The Ritz-Carlton, Abu Dhabi

But the branded residence market, as we know it today, only caught fire in the 1980s. During that era, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, a Canadian-owned international hospitality brand, sold out its Boston hotel condominiums and expanded globally, eclipsing its portfolio with Asia-based Regent Hotels in 1992. Ritz-Carlton followed suit, launching additional lodgings in North America. With more than 50 locations between them, these two luxury brands dominate the market today.

Leading hotel operators, such as Starwood, Fairmont Six Senses, Banyan Tree, W Hotels, Shangri-La, Taj, Viceroy, and Mandarin Oriental rushed to join the band in the 2000s. Now, with a total of 62 hotel-branded residences in existence, Trump, Waldorf-Astoria, JW Marriott, Hyatt Regency, and Armani are among those most recognized internationally. The number of luxury hotels that offer residency increased tenfold from 2000 to 2012, according to Piers Brown, CEO of International Hospitality Media. He predicts that designer brands will emerge as competitors or collaborators with established hotel brands. “Hotel-branded residences are just like other residential property, but better,” notes Christine Gray of Luxury Travel Magazine. “They are located in the same building as a hotel or on the property of a luxury resort and enjoy the services, amenities, and social aspects of the hotel environment such as spas, fitness centers, restaurants, and bars. Properties usually allow owners to rent its residences through an optional rental program through the hotel for additional income.” North Americans best represent the trend, although pockets of the sector have spread to parts of Europe and the Middle and Far East, according to Brown.

Stefan McHardy, attorney and Realtor of EWM Realty International, points to various valid reasons for the acquisitions, such as assurance of quality in construction, 24/7 access to top-notch five-star hotel services and facilities, the “lock up and leave” option, as well as a secure environment. Piers Brown opines, “There is a shift towards the ‘be yourself’ attitude, hassle-free convenience, privacy, security, and prestige offered by branded residences,” all of which is alluring.

Most observers point to the prestige being offered––the glitz, glamour, and bragging rights of the premium gold name. “I can certainly see the allure of living in such luxurious amenities daily,” says McHardy. “And many people do, but at a price. The key is to get the most out of what you are paying for.”

Established hotel brands aren’t the only ones lending its illustrious names. Bulgari, Versace, Moschino, Armani, and other designer brands are providing its imprint, too. In addition, top designers Anouska Hempel (a pioneer of the concept), Philippe Starck, Marcel Wanders, Jade Jagger, Kelly Hoppen, and Candy & Candy have recognized a strong growth sector in this market, offering branded-serviced apartments in the United States, London, and Singapore.

Ten Trinity Square, London

The Trump Tower is one of the most well-known, and certainly topical, of all branded residences. Eric Trump, the Trump Organization’s executive vice president of development and acquisition, had visited Trump Tower Manila, the first in Southeast Asia, with his construction team in summer 2015. The result was a 56-story building designed by award-winning international architectural firm Broadway Malyan. “By bringing the Trump brand to the country, Century Properties is introducing a global standard of excellence, quality, and high luxury, making it a new international destination for luxury living,” Robbie Antonio, Century Properties managing director and the development’s project head, said at the time.

All brand owners set rigid guidelines and design specification to developers so that they accurately reflect their brands down to the smallest details. Up-and-coming luxury branded residences, for instance, are now also offering cuisine by celebrity chefs and emphasizing its eco/green credentials, along with high floors with breathtaking views. Unit sizes are generally larger than non-branded equivalents, especially in comparison to European standards and reflect the trophy positioning.

Bulgari Premium Suite

The design process is actually becoming harder than easier as developers find that newer high-end homebuyers are seeking intellect and soul rather than merely aesthetics. And expectations are rising. A recent article on luxury brand experiences published by Luxury Society said, “They want cool, they want fun, and they want experiences.”

Swimming pool at Bulgari

The accent is on personalization and interiors that tag the buyer’s lifestyle and wrap around emotion and feelings. In short, the branded residence perfectly merges architecture, interior design, and lifestyle, delivering to the pitch. Branded residences can have its downsides too, such as costly monthly fees and regular renovation costs. “Since hotels, especially on the high-end brands, like to keep their properties looking better than the competition, they tend to undergo renovations and upgrades more often,” says Stefan McHardy.

Despite these limitations, branded premiums make good money for developers. A 2016 report by Graham Associates finds that they drive sales in the upper-end market by 30 percent, maintain resale value, and deliver higher rental returns because there are fewer voids in the rental season. These findings were confirmed by a 2012 Knight Frank research, which found that branded properties around the world sell 20 percent to 30 percent more than non-branded equivalents. Examples include Four Seasons at Clearwater Bay on Barbados’ much-sought-after Platinum Coast, or Palazzo Versace and D1 in Dubai. A strong brand holds value regardless.

“Hotel-branded residences give owners trophy status where they can boast that ‘The Ritz, the St. Regis, or the Four Seasons is my home,’” says Christine Gray. “They represent high-quality architecture, interior design, and construction quality in very desirable urban or resort locations.”

There is little doubt that branded resorts are gaining traction around the world, more so in North America and less in Europe, although London grabs a huge piece of the trend. The sector is on the upswing with more developers and types of hotels joining the horde. Developers are also offering a greater range of design and quality, and the concept is spreading to more destinations. Customers’ requirements and desires have shifted, too, and developers are keeping pace with them.

“With global wealth increasing, there will be more buyers for luxury real estate,” adds Gray. “Hotel-branded residences have stronger resale values because of the value of a global brand, so they are positioned to outperform the prices of the non-branded property market.” For investors, “Overall, hotel ownership and living can have many perks,” says McHardy. “And for investors, despite the expensive upkeep, the income potential is immense, if you negotiated a good deal at purchase.” Branded residences may be the deep-pocketed property investment of the future.

Images courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton / Simon Abrams / Bulgari

This story is featured in the Winter 2016/Spring 2017 issue of Haute Residence magazine.

The post Architectural Trends: How Luxury Residences Are Reimagined Through Hotel-Branded Condominiums appeared first on Haute Residence by Haute Living.

Why Invest?

According to Diletta Giorgolo Spinola, head of sales for Rome/Tuscany Sotheby's International Realty, the euro maintains its place of 20 percent lower than the dollar, which makes it profitable for buyers with dollars to buy low and sell at much higher prices when the market stabilizes. Luca Giovannelli, CEO of Casaitalia International, elaborates, “When the crisis arrived, most of the owners [and agencies, too] didn't recognize it at the beginning, so we had a period when everything was stationary; prices were too high, and the market went down.” It took a while and in some places, several years for sellers to realize the situation. But even with prices being taken some notches down, a significant amount of property remained on the market. It was only two years ago when most of the vendors started to properly re-price that the market started moving. According to Giovannelli, since this year, many properties have been re-priced, making it possible for buyers to pay 20 percent or 30 percent less than they would pay for these properties five years ago. This is how the market appears in Milan and Rome. “[It] give us a preview on the future evolution of the market,” adds Giovannelli.

Daria Burimova, real estate expert and analyst for Tranio.com, suggests that the price decline has proven attractive to investors who follow the adage of “buy low, sell high.” Investors adore Italy’s current real estate situation because it is a buyer’s market in every sense of the word. Burimova cautioned that once the recession property cycle has run its course, people will find it more expensive to buy. There will be growing competition and less demand. Prices will rise sky-high, possibly to the level of pre-2012 for investors. Today is the time to buy, since those who bought when prices were low will garner a huge profit at recession’s end when prices begin to rise.

'Villa Carla Felice' –– Porto Cervo, Sardinia

Marco Badalla, owner of Property at Lake Como, observes that the market for luxury property is growing. A new horde of homeowners have placed their villas on the market, while many castles and glitzy mountain-edge properties have hit the market for the first time.

Cycles aside, high-quality property in Italy’s primary and secondary cities are always in high demand among local and international buyers, particularly right now, as Francesco Papurello of Luxury Portfolio International indicates, “Prices have never been so low, and the banks are giving loans.” An example of one such property going for an attractive price is a country house featured by Casaitalia International with a magnificent view of Todi, a town and commune perched on a tall, two-crested hill overlooking Perugia, in Central Italy. The Realtors sold this estate five years ago for 2.5 million euros. Since then, it has been re-priced at 1,950,000 euros.

Then there are the incentives. Spinola pointed out that property taxation in Italy is low compared to most European countries and the United States. Better still, capital gain tax ceases after five years. Finally, there’s the splendid view. “Italy has the best mix of quality of life, nature, history, and art, and is appreciated by international buyers looking for coveted destinations,” says Silvia Miorini, brand representative for Immobilsarda, a real estate agency for the Sardinia-Gallura Costa Smeralda market.

Investment Challenges

Deep-pocketed investors are dealing with an exciting market. Opportunities are plenty, but chaotic times can present problems, as well. For instance, obtaining a construction permit in historical cities and protected natural areas can be exceedingly complex. In particularly popular areas, such as Lake Como and the Italian Riviera, it’s almost impossible to find vacant lots for development purposes, Burimova reports. Bureaucracy can be at best a headache, and at worst, a migraine.

As Papurello pointed out, cases vary. Here’s the general consensus: First and foremost, the investor needs to determine his or her priorities. “Is he or she after high yields or investment liquidity? These are two very common investment priorities that don’t go hand in hand,” says Burimova.

Once investors know what they’re looking for, they should zero in on the properties best suited to their needs. Giovannelli and Badalla recommend that investors buy the best location or position in the area that they prefer. For example, on Lake Como, the best location directly overlooks the water. “Our suggestion is to buy waterfront objects. The most important areas are the Italian Lakes; Maggiore and Como very close to Milan Malpensa International Airport.” Other favored locations are coastal areas or historic cities such as Venice, Rome, and Florence. Other agents, however, insist that choice of locations is personal and depends on the buyer’s or investor’s lifestyle. “We generally recommend that our high-end clients play it safe by investing in stable areas, and that they target higher-than-average yield properties,” Papurello advises. Similarly, Miorini added, “Investors should seek quality, in all aspects, primarily, but not only in the location.”

Spinola advised that investors focus on buying scenic property in prime locations in Rome, Florence, and Venice―the three most important cities. In this way, they would gain steady rent gains and an almost guaranteed return on investment. Tuscany, too, could pass since it is a highly requested region. On the other hand, Giovannelli noted, “Locations a little less known than the most famous ones, can offer really good opportunities, [are] sometimes more interesting than the others.” He suggested that buyers also look for properties that maintain an “authentic” patina: "They are part of a history, and they will be forever unique. Be selective, but don't try to find the perfect property, it doesn't exist. Focus on two to three points that are the most important for you. The rest can be added or modified.”
In other words, it can be easy to become lost in today’s overstimulated market. You need to ground yourself and the way to do so is to carefully work out what you want, your budget, and your properties, and then target stable, profitable opportunities that showcase quality.

Where to Invest?

Northern Italy is reportedly the safest region for buying property, as it is prosperous and highly developed. However, high-end clients come with specific needs that also include regional GDP, the proximity to high-level healthcare facilities, transportation, and population growth, among other priorities.

According to Miorini, Costa Smeralda in Sardinia, the Lake District in North Italy, and Milan rank among top places. Costa Smeralda is an international market for buyers looking for unspoiled nature, sandy beaches, and luxury living at its best. The Lake District is a piquant historic region. While Milan boosts Italy with its fashion and design economy. Spinola recommended Florence, Rome, Venice, Milan, and the Tuscan and Umbrian countrysides, as well as Amalfi and Capri.

At the end of the day, foreigners seem to be led by their specific tastes. Burimova, for instance, finds that British and American investors often prefer the Renaissance-era architecture and breathtaking scenery of Tuscany, while Germans fall for the Italian Riviera, with its dramatic mountains, vibrant villages, and turquoise Mediterranean beaches.

Papurello noted that his largely Russian, German, Swiss, and Chinese billionaire clients tended to go for property situated on Lakes Maggiore and Como that were close to Milan Malpensa International Airport. They also preferred coastal location in historic cities, such as Venice, Rome, and Florence.

Badalla’s high-end Italian market prefers lovely, historic villas or new ultra-modern villas that are furnished with cutting-edge technology.

Giovannelli had his own experience. “There are two kind of investors: the ones that point just on the most known locations such as Rome, Milan, and Venice [for the apartments]; Lake Como, Dolomites, or Tuscany for the Country homes; and the ones that prefer to invest in other places such as Umbria, Le Marche, Apulia, or smaller towns of art such as Siena, Orvieto, Todi....” he says. “Those places can offer amazing properties with more choice and more space for the prices to increase.” He found that more of his buyers who sought upper-heeled estates tended to move from Tuscany to the Umbria and Le Marche regions, since homes in Tuscany have largely needed rejuvenation in contrast to the newly refurbished homes in other regions.

Ennio Morricone, a famous Italian composer, wrote: I was offered a free villa in Hollywood, but I said no thank you, I prefer to live in Italy. 2017 may be the year to buy an Italian villa for next to nothing.

Images courtesy of Lionard Luxury Real Estate, Beliving International Properties: Tranio.com partners / Luxury Portfolio International

This story is featured in the Winter 2016/Spring 2017 issue of Haute Residence magazine.

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Jane Siann, who owns the “Emma Estate,” a four-bedroom Tuscan-style ranch on three lushly landscaped acres in Rancho Santa Fe, makes $3,500 per day renting out her home for weddings and other occasions. When booked, she rolls up rugs, locks up valuables, boards her parrot, puts her five cats in the garage, and checks into a hotel with her two dogs, The NY Times reports. In 2013, Siann logged a dozen weddings, and her estate was fully booked.

Buyers rent homes for various reasons, whether they want something different, more malleable, less public, or a sort of Gatsby-esque residence on the ocean. Paul Rodriguez, 30, and Judith Carr, 35, of New York City paid $25,000 for a nine-bedroom Victorian in Southampton, New York so that their families could get acquainted.

“Lone Star Mansion,” an antebellum-style home on 18 acres in Burleson, Texas

Alex Ailara, 22, and her husband Jamie Whitman, 23, reserved “Lone Star Mansion,” an antebellum-style home on 18 acres in Burleson, Texas, for their wedding reception. It was the man cave in the basement that hooked them: The 73-inch flat-screen TV, a pool table, a poker room, and a dry sauna. “It felt like the day was special not only for the bride but for the groom as well,” Ailara says.

Other high-end residences may be rented for week-long gatherings or family reunions. One like this is a log cabin mansion, affectionately named "Rocky Mountain Castle," located on over 13 acres in Sun Valley, Idaho. Its website describes its enchanting design as characteristic of "the robust iron, stone and log style of the Rocky Mountain west."

"Rocky Mountain Castle," a log mansion on 13+ acres in Sun Valley, Idaho

Big Domain, one of the many companies that caters to anyone seeking a short-term rental, offers ranches, hotels, villas, and yachts for 10 or more people to stage a luxury stag or hen weekend.

According to its website, you can: "Lap up the sunshine on the French Riviera, enjoy sangria in Spain, relax on one of Portugal’s beaches, tuck into a traditional dish in Italy, soak in a Turkish bath or marvel at the cultural brilliance in Greece. We have properties even further afield too with large party houses to rent in South America and North America as well as Africa and Australia meaning that you are certain to find the perfect location for your celebration."

Images courtesy of LoneStarMansion.com / Rocky Mountain Castle

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The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network announced a new strategy in crime-fighting: Track those who pay all cash for high-end residential real estate. According to USA Today, The FinCEN, a unit of the Treasury Department, will now require title insurance companies to identify the individuals behind companies who pay cash for expensive homes in Manhattan, New York, and Miami-Dade County, Florida, two areas that boom with such deals. Those of us who lack the means to do so can rest assured we've escaped the government's watch list.

Some criminals, who have adeptly acquired huge amounts of cash that they'd like to stash from the prying eyes of the IRS and law enforcement agencies, often hide it in mansions or high-rise condos––particularly in the luxury markets of Florida and New York City––and use anonymous LLCs and similar organizations to hide their identities from the government.

The New York Times reported that these shell corporations have served as no less than "safe deposit boxes for ill-gotten gains."

Of 32,050 sales of existing homes in Miami-Dade last year,1,176 were all-cash transactions of more than $1 million, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. Many buyers are from Latin American countries and have valid reasons for hiding their identity, says association CEO Teresa Kinney.

One case, in particular, was Paulo Octávio Alves Pereira, a Brazilian developer and politician who was indicted for corruption in his home country. The embezzler used a secretive Panamanian law firm, called Mossack Fonseca, to pay millions, cash-down, for his mansions. Other notorious individuals have employed these “towers of secrecy” for decades to park their funny money and rinse their dirty laundry.

“The guys who want to clean up dirty money are always going to try to penetrate the system at its weakest spot,” says Joe Kilmer, a former Drug Enforcement Administration special agent. “You’ve got so much real estate being bought and sold in South Florida. It’s easy to hide in plain sight.”

The new federal initiative that will require reporting of buyers of properties valued at more than $3 million may be the first sign that launderers are nearing the end of their game.

Between the federal crackdown on secret cash home deals and strengthening anti-money laundering rules around the world, criminals will have to find another place to stash their cash.

As Kinney told USA Today in January, "That's not what we want for our market."

Image courtesy of Action Realty of Sarasota

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San Francisco's Millennium Tower is sinking, according to satellite imagery released by The European Space Agency. The 58-story condominium building located in the South of Market district has sunk 16 inches and is tilting six inches northwest in the middle of an earthquake zone.

Residents of Millennium Tower have broadcasted their fury and stressed their insecurity, particularly since they were assured that they were rock safe when they were handed their keys upon move-in, ABC News reported. Christopher Jeffries, a founding partner of Millennium Partners, tossed the blame to the tower's neighbor, the $6 billion Transbay Transit Center, which dewatered the soil to house its multiple bus and rail stations. Jeffries graphically compared that behavior to “somebody [building] a giant train tunnel immediately adjacent to the property and then [pumping] water out from underneath the building," according to NBC.

Engineers have estimated the building is sinking at a rate of about one inch per year, however, the European Space Agency released detailed data from satellite imagery that showed almost double that rate, based on imagery collected from April 2015 to September 2016.

The real question, which few seem to consider, is would the building withstand an earthquake? Or would it slice clean in the middle and shatter to the sidewalk, as its counterparts in New York City did when two passenger airlines shaved their tops.

Engineers have developed San Francisco for seismic safety. Its taller structures are more resilient to quakes. They're more flexible, so less energy is required to keep them from toppling or collapsing when the earth's shaking makes them sway. Engineers have also reinforced skyscrapers with special material, usually wood, stone, or concrete. They have trussed them to support against vertical and horizontal forces and buffered their base with base isolators, which isolate the structure's base from the earth's movements.

Engineers are also recommended to test the structure's location. The ground below a structure can be as important a safety consideration as its construction. Bedrock absorbs more energy than sandy soils or landfills, so buildings on solid rock will be much less affected than those built on softer soils. And if softer soils have water in them, they can become a little like quicksand during an earthquake. Buildings on top of liquefied soil sink, and often, topple.

The Millennium Tower has no problems when it comes to height. With 58 floors, it towers 627 feet above San Francisco. Engineers buffered it with concrete. In fact, towers are the largest reinforced concrete building in the western United States.

The Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) attributes the tower's tilting and sinking to the fact that the Millennium Tower was not built on bedrock, but rather on clay and sand, which is why the TJPA dewatered it. The government transportation and housing project maintains that "the tilt and most of the vertical settlement of the Millennium Tower occurred before the TJPA started any underground work or dewatering."

Millennium Partners notes that there is no city requirement to build on bedrock and that other buildings nearby are not built on bedrock.

In 2009, Millennium Tower received nine awards for structural excellence.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons / video courtesy of ABC News

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The wizard of real estate has seen his business fortunes dip and soar, along with his presidential campaign. Recently, Donald Trump won impressive property––the United States of America––so he’s capped his business struggles, too––at least, for the moment.

Donald J. Trump, who will be the 45th president of the United States, first made his bid for office as he descended down an escalator on June 16, 2015. His business fortunes rose briefly, then they plummeted when his lurid comment toward women made Google News, when he mocked Khizr Khan, among others, and when he skedaddled from one scandal to another.

In the Republican candidate’s hometown of New York, real estate sales for the Trump brand fell by nearly 17.1 percent, while 456 residents from Trump Place Apartments on Riverside Drive launched a petition to remove his name from their building.

Redfin revealed that bookings at Trump Hotels caved 59 percent in the first half of 2016.

The Trump Hotels group replaced his name, for its new line of fancy hotels, with Scion.

For now, at least, Trump seems to have not only secured his business, but has also girdled the White House. Reports say his real estate soared in value post-election.

It’s less clear what the impact his presidency will have on the real estate of the rest of the country.

Most experts predict there will be a rise in interest rates. The Federal Reserve signaled a rate increase in December. Market volatility could influence them to delay the hike, although tax cuts, infrastructure spending, and inflation could herald it.

There could also be gyrations in the stock market. Trump may dilute restrictions and tighten international trade politics. He seems to delight in unpredictability and may play dominoes with the Federal Reserve. All of this and more can hold back corporate investment spending decisions, since, according to the laws of finance, markets thrive on predictability rather than chaos.

An environment of mass deportation and xenophobia could reduce international real estate investment and increase construction cost. It could also minimize the labor pool, and therefore, shrink the U.S. economy. All of this would stifle project development. Real estate prices may dip making rental properties and rent-to-buy propositions more attractive.

On the other hand, Trump has backpedaled on most of his campaign pledges. His "wall" has become a “fence”, and his deportations have dwindled to two to three million criminals.  

Could Trump’s presidency profit real estate? We're dealing with an unpredictable man, and perhaps, an unpredictable regency.

His presidential campaign played yo-yo with his business prospects. His kingship may, too.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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17475 Collins Ave, Sunny Isles Beach

It's hard to know what to make of Miami's luxury market. On the one hand, agents predict a gloomy future. Luxury condo prices are plunging, and the market's stagnant with inventory. On the other hand, Florida real estate experts credit Miami's unrivaled benefits as factors in its favor.

An October report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel revealed that the average sale price for luxury condos in Miami and Miami Beach had plunged 30 percent, year over year, in the third quarter, to $948,700 and $2.6 million, respectively. It reported that the number of luxury condo sales also plunged by 25 percent in Miami and by 17 percent in Miami Beach.

Then, there was the pop up of luxury buildings during the boom years of 2013 to 2014 that was imploding an already glut-filled, high-priced market. The result is that you have properties lolling on the market for an average of 126 days, more than double last year's number.

Then again, perspective is relative. Compared with Palm Beach, Miami sees less growth, with luxury prices tumbling 10 percent over the past year to an average of $1.4 million.

As Monica Venegas, owner of Venegas International Group, put it: “Miami will always be a global destination with investors from around the world.” Buyers tend to pay an average of $6000 per square foot for upper-crust property in cities such as New York, London, and Singapore. In Miami, you can pocket mansions for half that price.

9501 Collins Ave., Surfside

One driver is hedge funds that are either opening up subsidiaries in Miami, or transferring their offices from New York to its shores.

“The benefit of being a Florida resident for tax purposes has trickled many funds to look towards Florida, since we do not pay state income tax, and the cities of choice, have been Palm Beach or Miami,” says Ivonn Goihman, owner of the Goihman Group.

Agents like Miller Samuel's Jonathan Miller lament that the market is overstuffed and will likely get worse before it gets better.

Jill Eber of The Jills observes that at the end of the day, high-end buyers keen back to the land, and Miami boasts views, prestige, and almost unrivaled benefits. Celebrities live here; Old World wealth does, too.

Images courtesy of Monica Venegas / Ivonn Goihman

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Donald Trump, a tycoon of real estate, has been elected to govern the country, but what will his dominion mean for luxury real estate? The answer is in the balance.

On the one hand, real estate experts in London and the United States say that Americans can expect a storm of economic volatility to hit their country, similar as befell Britain in Brexit's wake. On the other hand, other experts claim that Britain attracted an uptick of buyers due to the depreciated pound; America will, too, they say.

One cautious agent, Monica Venegas, who is owner of Venegas International Group in Miami, insists that “Miami will always be a global destination with investors from around world." "Miami is still a bargain at more than $3000 per square feet for top luxury compared to New York, London, Singapore, and so forth, that go from $6000 to $10,000 per square feet for luxury,” she says.

If ever there was a time to invest in luxury real estate, it’s now, before Trump gets anointed.

"It's a great time now for buyers to buy in Miami, as they have a small window of opportunity, where both developers and sellers will entertain a price reduction from list price,” Venegas adds.

Not that Trump won't be good for real estate. But prices will rise, and that pane of opportunity will be shuttered.

According to Venegas, "That window will close in 2017 with Trump as president and Wall Street booming again under his leadership." She adds, "The Dow Jones already skyrocketed this week.”

Jill Hertzberg and Jill Eber of The Jills with Coldwell Banker say that uncertainty can rattle the stock market, which impacts the high-end luxury market. An unpredictable Trump government may cause short-term volatility; although, the market may rebound the next day.

"It’s hard to have a crystal ball, but the Miami market will really depend on the growth of the economy in the next year, both here in the U.S. and economies around the globe," they note. "The world is so interconnected, and we are very dependent on what happens in our feeder markets. We are a primary as well as a second- and third-home market, and we are very attractive [for] our favorable taxation [and] reasonable pricing compared to the Northeast U.S., California, Europe, and Brazil, and [the U.S. is] a safe country for capital flight."

In Germany, Farhad Vladi, a German broker and founder of Vladi Private Islands, which specializes in private island sales, declared the U.S. an evergreen location for luxury real estate, regardless of political change.

Peter Wetherell, CEO of Wetherell and a leading London real estate broker, is even more optimistic. “A Trump win,” he says, “will bring a property industry leader into the White House for the first time in American history.”

And then there are the questions: What about Latino investors, and rising interest rates, and China’s attitude to America, and inflation, and immigration policies, and on and on.

Whether the Trump presidency will be pro-property and pro-prosperity is still to be seen.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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As they did one year ago, prices for luxury homes in Palm Beach are skyrocketing.

Builders are tearing down old homes and constructing modernized houses, with all their bells and whistles. In Redfin’s luxury housing price index, which tracked luxury sales in more than 1,000 cities across the Unites States in the third quarter, Delray Beach in Palm Beach County capped the list.

Ivonn Goihman of the Goihman Group in the South Florida luxury real estate market, attributed growth to various factors. One driver is hedge funds that are either opening up subsidiaries in Palm Beach, or transferring their offices from New York to Palm Beach.

“The benefit of being a Florida resident for tax purposes has trickled many funds to look toward Florida, since we do not pay state income tax and the cities of choice have been Palm Beach and Miami,” Goihman says.

Average prices of luxury homes in Delray Beach jumped 70 percent over the past year to stand at $2.98 million. In Boca Raton, prices went up 38 percent to $2.59 million, while in West Palm Beach prices climbed 22 percent to $1.32 million.

Miami saw less growth with luxury prices tumbling 10 percent over the past year to an average of $1.4 million. Buyers in Miami have more choice, and therefore, more negotiating power than residents of Palm Beach.

Palm Beach, on the other hand, offers investors more opportunity, particularly with waterfront-placed condos, such as the Bristol Tower.  "This is a luxury development that we introduced to our company Douglas Elliman when we came aboard three years ago," Goihman says, speaking about the residential building. "My husband Richard met and consulted with the developers, and toured the Miami luxury developments, and they saw the opportunity of bringing super high-end projects like those in Miami to Palm Beach. The Bristol is one of the first being developed in Palm Beach, and most of the buyers are from New York City, and they are having great success in Palm Beach."

Although high-end real estate continues to falter across the country, it’s climaxing in Palm Beach.

Buyers keen back to the land, which boasts prestige and almost unrivaled benefits. Palm Beach commands attention, more than ever, since not only does it beckon Old World wealth and celebrities, but it also complements our political times. After all, the region houses the South Wing of The White House, home of America’s new President-Elect.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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Want to know how to sell a top-niche home? Or how to make your next investment all the more inviting so that visitors will be wowed? Hang a Picasso, Warhol, or some striking original on your wall.

Various reports reveal that developers commission fine art pieces to add that je ne sais quoi to the walls of luxury homes. It can be luminescent sculptures with neon tubes that are curved in the walls, as in a spec home in Beverly Hills. This was called “light and space” art. Or modern paintings of toilet paper rolls for the bathroom from Retna, a Los Angeles native who got his start in graffiti.

In Miami, for instance, developers commission outstanding art from some of the top contemporary artists in the world.

A Ross Report by the Audrey Ross Team in Miami Real Estate says, "A personally commissioned piece of art by a world-renowned artist is a finishing touch that aligns with the demands of today’s luxury culture… High net worth buyers have high standards. With buildings designed by some of the world’s most outstanding architects, it just makes sense, and the trend takes luxury to the next level. It turns these homes in the sky into seamless places that combine the natural pristine beauty of Miami with haute design and some of the finest creations of the world’s living artists. It creates beautiful spaces designed that meet the demands of 21st Century living. It’s the couture version of architecture."

Developers call it the “artification” of Miami’s most expensive condos, according to the report.

Throughout the United States and in some parts of Europe, high-end developers, brokers, and stagers coordinate with museums and galleries to display high-end original art during home showings. Like the houses themselves, the art is for sale.

Jaman Properties, for example, enhanced the former estate of President Ronald Reagen in Pacific Palisades with sketches from Picasso, works by Hockney and Sutan, and two drawings from Ethan Murrow. A spec home conceived by the fashion designer Charles Park featured more than $6 million worth of art by figures as familiar as Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst, as well as other artists.

Although the loan is free, stagers or developers pay for costs that include insurance, professional art packing, transporters, installers, and security. Costs total, but developers value results.

The profit works both ways. For the stager, the art may make the home feel more luxurious and one-of-a-kind. For the museums and galleries, it serves as wonderful exposure to well-heeled potential clients. Some visitors buy the paintings rather than the homes.

More importantly, the art has to be real. Janus Cercone, principal for Los Angeles-based Jaman Properties has been offered art reproductions with the suggestion that no one will be able to tell the difference.

"But we believe our buyer will absolutely know," he says. "If we put ourselves in their position, we'd have to ask: If there's fake art on the walls, what else isn't authentic?"

Images courtesy of Harvey Kalles Real Estate

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As the Trump name waffles, demand for his luxury condominiums do, too. However, it's not clear how much of this is a result of his current reputation, and how much is due to shifts in the luxury market.

Trump has been through a rough political ride. He’s been sloshed with accolades, from racism to xenophobia, misogyny, and the like. The Huffington Post, for instance, routinely ends its articles by reminding readers that, "Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims––1.6 billion members of an entire religion––from entering the U.S."

This makes few people proud to call Trump's luxury condominiums their residence.

In the Republican candidate's hometown of New York, sales fell by nearly 17.1 percent, while 456 residents from Trump Place Apartments on Riverside Drive launched a petition to remove his name from their building.

Redfin revealed that bookings at Trump Hotels caved 59 percent in the first half of 2016.

Business Insider observed that Trump condos that are currently listed for sale are less likely to have the word “Trump” in the listing remarks than were Trump condos that sold in the past five years.

More tellingly, the Trump Hotels group is replacing the Trump name with another for its new line of fancy hotels. From now on, they’ll be called Scion.

Does the challenge come from Trump’s nefarious stories or from changes in the luxury market?

An article on Realtor.com says that the Trump name may have lost its rubbings.

“They’re considered generic, upper-middle-class properties,” says an anonymous real estate expert, who noted that Trump buildings have similar lobbies and features. “It’s like a formula and it works, but… times have changed.”

According to Mia Trudeau, real estate agent of Hilton & Hyland estates, luxury products are becoming increasingly more sophisticated with “services, security, and amenities clearly representing a very important aspect of this type of purchase."

Joyce Rey of Coldwell Bankers explains, "In our market, the wealthy clients typically search for brand new or pristine, updated estates." She adds, "Important ingredients are privacy, quality of finishes, prime location, and views. In some cases, a site to build their dream house increases demand for older tear-down properties, which are also sought by the high number of developers constantly searching for projects."

A recent article on Luxury Brand Experiences published by Luxury Society noted, “Residents want cool, they want fun, and they want experiences.”

Trump apartments supply some of these items, but not all. Luxury agents say they’re dated in comparison to New York’s new crop of service-laden lodgings.

Actually, Trump owns only a percentage of these buildings. Various owners pay him license fees to chisel his name. They're the losers, as much as he.

Still, whatever your opinion of Donald J. Trump, a President Trump may rub the tarnish from the gold name and attract investors.

For the moment, it seems as though foreigners make up the bulk of his buyers.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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In a world where housing prices are rising all the time, certain urban cities are leading the pack, according to Knight Frank's October, 2016 report. Of these, six of the top 10 are major municipalities in China.

China has long sizzled its housing prices, likely due to its humongous population. In this second quarter of 2016, the Knight Frank survey showed that China had retained this sport, but this time had also shared its proclivity with Britain. The top 10 cities on the list with highest price increases were six from China and four from Britain.

China’s top six cities are Shenzhen, Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou. The top four British cities on the European list are Bristol, London, Nottingham, and Birmingham.

Not to be outdone, other international cities also hiked their prices with urban cities racing the pack.

“Of the 150 cities tracked by the index, 76 percent saw house prices increase in the year to June 2016,” says Kate Everett-Allen, partner of international residential research at Knight Frank. “A comparison of our global indices shows urban house prices are outperforming their national averages.”

Cities included Shenzhen, China; Shanghai; Nanjing, China; Budapest, Hungary; and Vancouver, Canada. Thirty-one of these cities spun their prices to more than a double-digit increase.

These are the regions that you may not want to rent in, although another report from Knight Frank revealed that Chinese and British cities are doing extremely well in the luxury real estate market.

“Two trends stand out. Firstly, the extent to which some tier one Chinese cities have risen up the rankings in the last 12 months, and secondly, the strong performance of key U.K. cities, outside of London,” Ms. Everett-Allen told Luxury Daily, a leading luxury business publication.

To the other end of the spectrum, prices in other areas fell rapidly in the past year. Moscow entered a torrid market with its volatile economy. Prices melted 11 percent from last year to June 2016.

Istanbul, Turkey, and Stockholm, Sweden, also reached new lows with Istanbul slipping from third to ninth and Sweden from sixth to 29th. Jaipur, India, cooled, too.

For major urban housing markets across Asia and Europe, conditions may escalate in a bubble, although Claudio Saputelli, head of global real estate in the Chief Investment Office at UBS Wealth Management negates the possibility of a crash. At the same time, the luxury market situation in some of these prime cities is doing well.

The plight of rising prices seems to favor high-quality investors.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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901 Alpine Drive, Beverly Hills is presented by Joyce Rey of Coldwell Banker

California is dominating the U.S. luxury home market with seven of its 10 counties ranking at the top, according to Realtor.com’s Luxury Homes Index.

The report, released October 4, identifies and ranks the top luxury markets in North America based on factors of "luxury prices," "luxury sales volume," and "luxury market absorption and velocity." The most recent findings revealed that San Mateo took second place at $2.384 million, followed by San Francisco ($2.383 million), and Marin ($2.154 million), while Santa Clara ($1.83 million) grabbed the sixth spot.

You have to have money to live in Los Angeles, "The City of Angels," or, rather, the “city of sardines” as travel writer Dana Carmel called Los Angeles due to its jostling for homes. You also have to have money to live in the "Golden City" (San Francisco), or in most other cities in California, for that matter. Luxury home prices in San Mateo and San Francisco rose by 9 percent and 6 percent, respectively, in contrast to the first six months of last year. Alternatively, home prices in Marin dropped 7.1 percent, while prices were flat in Santa Clara.

In early October, Mansion Global reported that California’s luxury market is slowing, while the $3 million to $5 million price bracket is driving the market. 

This listing in Presidio Heights, San Francisco is presented by Beverly Barnett of Pacific Union/Christie's Interntational Realty

“In the Bay area, $20 million houses will sit there for longer. That market is softening a bit as buyers are nervous about the economy and the election, but the $3 million market is still very active,” Justin Fichelson, star of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing San Francisco, told Mansion Global.

Several industry experts we've talked to who represent the L.A. and San Francisco markets attribute peak prices to being one of the factors that’s making locals pick up and move elsewhere.

Although job opportunities are percolating in vast tracts of California, with San Francisco and San Mateo Counties, for instance, offering more than 47,000 jobs during the last year, job seekers are forced to look for cheaper homes outside the area, according to real estate agent Danielle Schwartzman of Pacific Union/Christie's International.

The same goes for buyers who consider investing in the ultra-luxury sector.

Zillow recently revealed that as much as 50 percent of local searches for homes tend to roam outside San Francisco. Our correspondents gave various reasons for this, which include limited market inventory and, of course, the expense.

"We read articles all the time about families who are moving out of the city due to the cost of living," says Schwartzman. "Many of those families would like to stay in San Francisco and raise their children, but with the lack of inventory, they have a difficult time finding affordable homes that meet their needs... It looks like we’ve had a slow-down in our real estate market, and it’s true that 2016 has not seen the frenzy that we experienced in the Spring of 2015."

This is especially so when homes almost tap the $3 million peak, and where prices hover from $5 million to $6 million on the north side of San Francisco. With most areas of the city selling at over $1000 per square foot, owning a home in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Mateo, or any part of the Bay Area, for that matter, is a dream for most.

For instance, L.A. also ranked in the top 10 Luxury Homes Index, tagging an average luxury price of $1.337 million, up 3.3 percent year-over-year and 20.8 percent in 2013.

Joyce Rey of Coldwell Banker noted that properties in the L.A. area that were in excess of $20 million were down in volume, but that the five and 10 million-dollar price range was running slightly ahead of the 2015 market, which was the best sales volume on record. This confirmed the Mansion Global observation. She did, however, hasten to add that although the East Coast market suffered a slow-down, probably due to enormously high price-per-square foot asking prices and an abundance of new high-rise construction, the L.A. luxury market was, and is, doing well.

It's also showing sky-high price tags. Speaking of San Francisco, Schwartzman says, "With more and more people hoping to live in its 49 square miles and surrounded by water on three sides, it makes sense that inventory and affordability are always going to be issues."

The same can be said for the rest of California, too.

Images courtesy of Coldwell Banker / Pacific Union/Christie's International Realty

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Regulators are contending that Airbnb is making it easier to illegally rent out apartment units for short stints to travelers, taking units off the market for full-time residents and driving housing costs higher. Some states, such as New York, are fighting back.

Since 2010, it has been illegal in New York to rent out an entire apartment for fewer than 30 days. But some tenants and landlords have ignored those rules and have been using Airbnb to rent out their apartments for much shorter periods. In turn, empty apartment turn into de facto hotels, escape the market, and drive up costs of rental prices in a city which already struggles with notoriously high real estate prices. From 2002 to 2014, for example, average rent in NYC increased 32 percent, while that same rent increased almost 45 percent in Brooklyn's most sought-after Airbnb neighborhoods.

On Oct. 21, Gov. Andrew Cuomo made advertising rentals to Airbnb slightly more expensive for New York residents by signing a law that states that tenants advertising rentals of less than 30 days can be fined $1,000 to $7,500 if the host is absent from the premises during the rental. That is higher than the penalty for drunk driving.

New York City is a major market for Airbnb containing 45,000 of its 2.5 million worldwide listings. The company contested the ruling.

An online article that questions, “Is Airbnb Illegal?”, suggests that some politicians like to think so only because the company is taking over market share and is not collecting or paying lodging taxes, which means less tax revenues. Its 2013 report showed that Airbnb guests had generated $632 million in economic activity in New York during the previous year. This August, the company stated that it had removed some 2,570 illegal listings in under a year, despite the fact that “Airbnb listings represent a fraction of the housing stock in New York City.”

A 2014 report by the office of state attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, noted that 72 percent of listings on Airbnb at the time violated state and/or city laws having to do with short-term rentals.

In turn, Airbnb argued that reports produced by affordable housing advocates are skewed. To elaborate, critics of the company repeatedly turn to one of two studies. The first is from Murray Cox, an Australian programmer and photojournalist whose website, Inside Airbnb, shows how “Airbnb affects the city’s housing supply and affordability” not only in New York, but in cities around the world.” Cox’s report became the basis for  “Short Changing New York City,” a report for Housing Conservation Coordinators, as well as for several news stories about rent in the city. Cox is, however, biased since he supports critics of the company who claim that it drives up rents.

The second report comes from a study commissioned by Skift, a self-defined “industry intelligence platform,” that provides research on global travel trends.The study examined 19,522 New York City listings on Airbnb’s site, affirmed Airbnb’s claim that the majority of users rent where they live, but found that some tenants did tend to rent “entire home/apartment” listings and that at least 10 people were renting more than 300 rooms in the city.

Since the study was released, Airbnb removed illegal multiple listings from its site, advises potential hosts to look into local laws, and spells out various regulations including restrictions of the New York State multiple dwelling law.

In its latest episode, Airbnb sued New York over Cuomo’s law.

The state agreed not to enforce the law until Airbnb’s lawsuit has been resolved.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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7 Montagel Way in Alabama will soon be up for auction

The world’s finest art, cars, and antiques are sold at auction––so, why not real estate?, thought Laura Brady, an award-winning real estate agent, back in 2004.

At that time, she approached Sarasota, Florida-based broker Chad Roffers to discuss a more efficient method for buying and selling luxury homes.

The problem was that the number of homes coming into market was increasing, but sales were not. According to Brady, "The inefficiencies of traditional sales methods were accentuated. It was very difficult for sellers to stand out among the other homes for sale, and there was no certainty as to when they would sell, or for what price."

The beginning was tough. It was 2008, after all: the core of the recession. But 2008 also propelled Concierge Auctions, which the the real estate duo's launched in order to help distressed clients who needed to monetize their real estate holdings. Later, as the market solidified, they transferred their attention to clients who chose to auction high-end homes instead of sell on the market.

This past summer, the company's total sales topped $1 billion. The property must be in an A-plus location, photogenic, beautifully constructed, move-in ready, and "remarkable" in Brady's words. The seller should be looking to sell as a business decision, rather than out of financial need in order to be able to choose the highest bidder. A four to six weeks marketing pitch follows, after which the property is typically auctioned off at the property itself or at a nearby venue.

Sellers benefit from the control that Concierge Auctions offer them. They're able to control date and terms of the sale, and benefit from the company’s global marketing spread and public relations platform.

Buyers benefit from the ease of bidding at auctions. Concierge Auctions helps buyers bid easily from anywhere in the world via its "Instant Gavel" app, on which they're able to watch the live bidding and feel confident in the price they're paying.

Current offerings range from a modern palazzo residence in Venice, to a 23,000-square-foot compound with a spectacular sports complex in California, to a Pennsylvania home built in 1755.

"Not bad for a company that aimed to give buyers and sellers of luxury property more options," says Brady.

Image courtesy of Concierge Auctions

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Moscow​ is considered to be one of the ​world's​ ​most​ ​expensive​ ​cities​ ​for​ ​buying​ ​luxury​ ​rentals​.

In 2014, The Telegraph said, "For $1 million, you can buy 43 square meters of upmarket space in Moscow. Apartments in a palatial new residential complex on the Ostozhenka are priced from around $2.2 million."

Most recently, however, prices for luxury rentals in Moscow are rising higher than ever, by double, almost triple digits, which is good news if you own property in the gilded capital and have a steady stream of renters. It’s bad news if you’re looking to rent or are buying for immediate return on investment.

Russia’s economy has slightly improved since a year ago, but that's not saying much. In 2015, Russia was said to have entered its second recession since 2009. Interest rates were appallingly high, inflation was sickening, and its GDP contracted by 4.6 percent in the second quarter of that year, according to the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat).

Late last month, global real estate agency Knight Frank ranked the Russian capital as top of the list in its most expensive luxury rental index released Wednesday, with prime rents rising 11.1 percent in the second quarter, compared to a year earlier riding the back of a ruble that’s stronger than the dollar.

“Around 15 to 20 percent of the rental supply is dollar-based, so a stronger ruble against the U.S. dollar over the last quarter has forced these dollar-based prime rents higher,” explains Taimur Khan, senior research analyst at Knight Frank.

After a hefty decline last year, the ruble superseded the dollar in the second quarter of this year and has remained relatively stable since, supported by Russia's central bank’s decision to rein in interest rates, at least until the end of this year.

Prices are high, but at a predicted GDP contraction to 0.7 percent, they’re nowhere close to the level they were in 2015, when Russia’s economy shrank by 3.7 percent.

These sky-high prices are unfortunate for renters but wonderful for investors, since more people are unable to afford their mortgages and place their quality homes on the market. This is the time when property prices falter to tantalizing lows, which means that investors who are looking for opportunity in Moscow are given a pick of large properties, luxury homes, and villas that they can buy low and sell higher, or hold onto and gain a splendid return on investment from renting at recession's end.

That was the situation in 2015, when luxury apartment prices rose by 2.86 percent, but house prices steadily fell in all but six out of 51 Russian cities during the third quarter of 2015, according to the portal Mir Kvartir. Experts wondered that home prices had not fallen further.

Moscow is the capital of the Russian Federation. Over the course of its long history, the city was conquered and destroyed many times but always rose again. Many famous VIPs choose to live in Moscow, in places like Ostozhenka and Yakimanka, as well as Sadovoe Koltso. They look for large properties, since luxury homes in Moscow are synonymous with absolute prestige and elegance. The quality of a home is measured by its size, and having a large property in Moscow, one of the most expensive cities in the world, is a real status symbol.

These factors are likely to retain current demand in Russia's luxury property market, particularly since the government is also seeking to boost the Russian real estate market by offering mortgage rate incentives to those who buy property in Russia.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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The "safe room" has become the image of the time for deep-pocketed property owners. Maybe, it reflects our insecurity. Either way, there’s bragging rights over who owns the latest cutting-edge James Bond so-called panic room.

"It becomes a competition at dinner parties over who has what state-of-the-art hazmat suits, and kits where you can drink your own pee, etcetera," comments Jill Kargman, writer and star of TV's Odd Mom Out." "People love to say how much go money they have."

The system’s right out of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Nay! It's magic.

Security keys work on biometric recognition software, residents protect themselves from earthquakes via steel-reinforced concrete caissons that burrow 30 feet underground, and they’ve installed infrared cameras that prowl the perimeters and sniff human thermal heat as far away as 15 kilometers.

Regarding entrance to these billionaire bunkers, former Israeli major general Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash has devised a solution. The onetime head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate has spent the past three years creating a software product that recognizes the entrant solely by face, voice, and behavior, so there is need for a key.

But the core of the home, the "safe core" as one owner calls it, is the safe room.

Forbes describes how a prominent author, who declined to be named, had his third-floor master suite “outfitted as a 2,500-square-foot safe haven." According to Forbes, "Switches installed throughout the house would encapsulate the space, locking down its three entrances with reinforced doors while alerting local authorities.” The owner’s bathroom doubled as an inner panic room and was stuffed with armament enough to protect his family in an apocalypse. He has never had to use his retreat or weaponry, but “there is a lot of peace of mind that comes with it.” 

Some safe rooms are converted from bedrooms or other rooms. Manhattan and Floridian developer, Tom Gaffney, founder of Gaffco Ballistics, for instance, describes how he outfits bedrooms with bulletproof windows, ballistic fiberglass to secure doors against explosions, an air filtration unit to protect against a gas attack, and a panic button. The kevlar-lined, bullet-resistant doors alone may start at $20,000, according to Gary Paster, founder of American Saferoom Door Company. The typical  price for a billionaire bunker totals to almost half a million dollars.

While safe rooms don’t often top buyers’ wish lists, Jean Bateman, a real estate pro with Sotheby’s, considers them a bonus.

They may be a bonus, too, to uber-savvy intruders. After all, safe rooms contain secrets. They're used to store pricey jewelry, antique guns, or belongings when owners rent out their home for the season. If thieves manage to penetrate despite the cameras, magic keys, and spiffy detectors, they're in for a haul.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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Johnny Depp's private village in the South of France is listed for $55 million.

Being a celebrity may earn the big bucks, but it doesn't always mean you can sell your home for top dollar, or even sell your home at all.

In a recent survey of 60 celebrities, Redfin, the real estate news and analysis website, found that, on average, celebrity-owned houses stayed on the market 36 days longer than other homes and usually sold for less than the asking price.

Young and old pay hundreds if not thousands for replica of their belongings or garb, so you’d find it astonishing that people with money would hesitate to grab their homes for themselves or, even, for renovating and selling to others.

There may be two reasons for this, suggests Redfin. First, celebrities include certain add-ons on their homes that may dissuade prospective buyers from investing. Indeed, the researchers found that celebrity-owned homes tend to be bigger with more bedrooms and bathrooms. Not everyone wants that extra bedroom or spa, even if Marilyn Monroe had occupied it.

Then again, celebrities are obsessed with their privacy. Home buying involves a visit to the home, if not to the seller. Some enterprising tourists may latch onto the opportunity, simply to see their hero or heroine. Few celebrities want that. Few, too, says Connie Blankenship, a Beverly Hills real estate agent with Douglas Elliman, list their homes on multiple listing services (MLS), which reduces the list of prospective buyers even more.

MarketWatch adds that celebrities tend too to overprice their homes. “It’s not uncommon for the rich and/or famous to overspend on the purchase of a home and then customize it too much––making it very difficult to recoup expenses.”

The short of it is that celebrities such as Katy Perry have sold their homes for more than $1 million under the asking price. Matthew Perry settled for $2.85 million less than his original $25 million. Jessica Simpson clawed all the way down to $6.4 million, which is $1.595 million less than what she wanted for her Beverly Hills estate.

Other celebrities have homes that have been on and off the market for months, if not for years.

Tom Cruise has been trying to sell his home for the past two years. According to The Wall Street Journal, he listed it in 2014 for $59 million. That’s its price today.

Michael Jordan's estate has been on the market for four years. His 56,000-square-foot house north of Chicago was listed for $29 million in 2012. It’s down to $14,855,000, as of July 2016. The house has nine bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, a basketball court, a card room, a humidor, a putting green, a fitness studio, and a tennis court. Jordan’s real estate agent Kofi Nartey tried to woo buyers with a pair of every edition of Air Jordan sneakers in his or her size. No takers, though.

It’s not so easy being a celebrity if your home doesn't sell. Normal people may, actually, have it easier.

Image courtesy of Alexander Kraft of Cote d’Azure/Sotheby’s International Realty

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If you invest in Australia, agents say you’re lucky. In Queensland, million-dollar estates have been selling these past weeks at a mighty clip, according to sources cited by The Australian. Some of them are relatively cheap, too.

There was the $25 million AUD (approx. $19 million USD) sale in Surfers Paradise as well as the sell of fallen mining giant Nathan Tinkler’s sprawling estate at Pullenvale. A beachfront mansion at Noosa’s swanky Sunshine Beach sold for record millions, while Scott Perrin’s Mermaid Beach estate toppled off the shelf for another $25 million AUD (approx. $19 million USD).

Records in the Gold Coast hover below those of 2008 when entrepreneur Tony Smith sold his partially completed beachfront mansion on Mermaid Beach for $27 million (approx. $21 million USD). But last week, Smith told The Australian that Perrin’s buy was a steal: “This sale is a great thing, it shows confidence in the beachfront market,” he said. Meanwhile, Tom Offermann, of Tom Offermann Real Estate, predicts Noosa’s getting there. The region has begun attracting year-round investors, rather than its seasonal buyers of the past. “Noosa used to have a lot of ups and downs," Offermann says. "When it wasn’t a holiday, you could fire a gun down Hastings Street. These days, it’s fairly even and hard to tell when it’s off peak. This year most of the resorts have been achieving occupancy rates in excess of 80 percent.”

Offermann cited his $9.3 million AUD (approx. $7.1 million USD) sale of Sunshine Beach House as an example of how sales are starting to gallop. “The coastal market recovery has been slower than capital cities, which is why suddenly over the past six months, we have experienced a lot of capital city buyers from Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne picking up properties in the Noosa market.”

It's true that property values are still below 15 percent of sales raked in at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008, but canny investors are picking up some relatively cheap deals, and interest is growing. A Portsea coastal property, for instance, located on more than 40,000 square feet, with a swimming pool and tennis courts, is on the market for $2.5 million AUD (approx. $2 million USD), mainly because it does not have 2016 finishes, according to Kay & Burton Portsea director Liz Jensen. Other beachfront homes are languishing for higher prices, which Offermann points out are still deals relative to general prices for comparative estates.

A mansion for five or six million dollars may well be considered expensive, but “They are all bargains because there is no way you could construct them for that money these days,” Port Douglas agent Tony McGrath told The Australian three weeks ago.

There’s no doubt that billionaires are looking for that holiday home by the side and finding them along Queensland’s swanky coast.

Next up is song writer Michael Chapman's 43.5-square-foot Tinbeerwah property called Cintamani. Offermann says that will be the next bauble on the market.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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Money-making millennials are now buying into luxury real estate. The new high net worth buyer is younger, tech-smart, savvy, and influencing the market.

“The demographics of the buyer market is changing," says top-producing Hamptons broker, Matthew Breitenbach. "There’s younger money in the market." Successful millennials have the cash and are buying their first homes for millions of dollars.

His observation is replicated on a wider scale throughout the United States.

In Los Angeles, they're looking at work-live-play environments, like Hollywood Hills or the snazzy Bird Streets neighborhood in Beverly Hills, according to Connie Blankenship, director of luxury estates for Douglas Elliman. Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL), a company that provides commercial real estate services for corporations and investors, reveals that millennials outnumber baby boomers by 10 percent in downtown Los Angeles in a consumer market.

In New York, the neighborhoods of Tribeca, the West Village, Greenwich Village, and the Upper East Side are the hot spots for high-end living. In the Hamptons, says Breitenbach, “They love the Malibu vibe and more dynamic, modern homes.” They are trendy, urban, modern, and sleek. Millennials look for a place to reboot while working in the city.

They also want to live near the cafes, restaurants, and bars that they frequent.

Think of houses with top-floor terraces for serving wine, high ceilings, plenty of space for their modern art collection, and offices for remote work. “The younger generations are workaholics,” says Edward de Mallet Morgan, a partner with Knight Frank’s international residential team, “Access and technology play a major role in all of this.”

Dolly Lenz, owner of Dolly Lenz Luxury Real Estate, says that in New York City, she’s seen young buyers adding a small kitchen off the master bedroom, where they can pour themselves their morning coffee, instead of slumping down to the kitchen to do so, according to Mansion Global.

Buyers tend to star in the fields of tech, music, entertainment, or sports, or they represent some glitzy family fortune. They're willing to take on major renovation and are able to bide it out to get what they want. Past young buyers sought ready furnished homes; these aim to customize their own and will only move in once they're satisfied.

This new breed of buyer not only changes the landscape but also alters business patterns. In the past, agents resorted to traditional marketing schemes to attract affluent investors. Today, they use social media platforms, such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Pinterest, and are forced to blog and update websites in order to retain their competitive edge.

Maybe, the hardest challenge of all is that today’s millennial buyer is no walk-over. The YouGov 2016 Affluent Perspective Global Study states that when it come to upscale real estate, high-quality workmanship, and luxury, today’s millennials know it all.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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Thailand roils on political and economic uncertainty, but for higher net worth investors, areas like Bangkok wink their welcome.

In less than a century, Thailand has had it all: 21 different constitutions and 19 attempted coups, 12 of which were successful. The real estate market held on. The economy roller-coasted through a recession in 1997 and floods in 2012. The ironic result: a building boom that littered Bangkok's CBD with glitzy high-rises.

At one time, so-called Teflon Thailand promised a model of market resilience. Since then, terrorism, the growth of extremism, and a declining economy have scuttled the enthusiasm of foreign investors.

“It is widely accepted that the Teflon days have passed,” Risinee Sarikaputra, research and consultancy director of Knight Frank Thailand told Property Report this month. “We are now facing new challenges in our overall economy, such as our continually declining exports, which we depend greatly on, and a global economy no longer functions the way it used to.”

Sarikaputra recommends that investors forget about short-term investment and focus on long-term gain. Thailand has certain areas that are abuzz with opportunity for the higher-end market. In Bangkok, for instance, foreign buyers from Hong Kong, Singapore, and China are snapping up condominiums. Roughly 446,000 condos will show by the end of 2016, almost double that of 2012. The Bangkok housing index rose by 4.9 percent last year, and the condo index shot by a full 14 percent, according to the Bank of Thailand.

Smaller coastal towns, such as Phuket, are doing less well, although Phuket, admittedly, shows contradictory reports. On the whole, it seems that a drawling economy and a drippy ruble in Russia are pulling down demand for ultra-luxury villas in coastal towns, according to a study by Knight Frank and reports by experts, such as James Pitchon of CBRE, the world's largest commercial real estate services firm.

Fortunately for high-net-worth investors, the nation claims an unparalleled beauty and tourist appeal that may lug Teflon-Thailand through its challenges. EThailand, Thailand's leading portal on real estate, says that low property taxes and relatively lax foreign ownership laws titillate, too.

Nonetheless, buyers may remain dissuaded by Thailand's political and economic duress. Both EThailand and Sarikaputra predict an improving economy and strengthening political market. They recommend buyers to consider playing the long game.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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You’d be hard-pressed to guess the hottest housing market at the moment. It's not San Francisco, Miami, or New York but one remote island in New Zealand that calls itself Auckland.

A new report from Christie’s International Real Estate says the city posted a 63 percent growth rate in in the $1 million-plus market over the past year. Property’s are going fast, with average homes on the market lasting fewer than 45 days.

There are several reasons for the splurge. Auckland has the Waitemata harbor, palm trees, powdery beaches, and 2,003 hours of sun. The jobs are there; this city of 1.4 million people is New Zealand’s “global” city on a par with London or New York. It’s bohemian, diverse, and cultural. The economy’s good and real estate's a bargain. According to The Wall Street Journal, a three-bedroom, solar-powered house perched over some almighty cliff costs the same as a loft apartment in San Francisco. Property laws are generous, tax is minor, and New Zealand legally discourages foreign speculation. In short, Christie’s says:

A strong economy, magnificent natural beauty, and a friendly image are key selling points for New Zealand’s foreign real estate buyers. Add to that the country’s property laws––which do not include a stamp duty, capital gains tax, or visa requirements––and the result is one of the world’s most attractive property markets for overseas buyers.

For investors of today, Auckland’s a haven from the stock market unpredictability that’s plaguing Europe and the United States. Others like to spend on property given today's market uncertainty and China’s recession. In nearby Wellington, 400 miles from Auckland, real estate agent Craig Lowe told the WSJ that the market was his strongest in 16 years of selling real estate. “The psychology of the booming market is so powerful that I don’t think any rhetoric from [policy makers] will make any difference. Everyone sees other people making money,” he said.

It's a small wonder that Auckland trounced last year's hottest market,Toronto, according to Christie’s International Real Estate.

This year's proving better.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia

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The world has become a volatile place and the luxury housing market reflects that volatility. Britain left the European Union; its high-end housing market toppled as a result. America saw the slowest running market since 2012, and sales of million-dollar homes dropped.

The value of London homes was hit by increases in property tax, which pushed up buyers' cost, but it was Brexit that slapped the finishing touch. Knight Frank's Prime Central London index fell 1.5 percent two months ago from a year earlier. Kensington, one of London’s 15 most expensive areas, experienced prices that dropped to 7.3 by early August, Chelsea slumped to 7.2 percent, and Notting Hill fell 3.7 percent, according to Knight Frank's London Residential Research.

Knight Frank's head of research, Tom Bill, told Reuters: "Since the vote, a number of buyers have requested discounts due to the climate of political and economic uncertainty." Investors pulled out money from commercial property––that took the greatest hit––but the high-end market suffered too.
"The decision to leave the European Union has provided a backdrop of short-term uncertainty that is affecting behavior in the Prime Central London property market," Bill said.

Foreign investors are holding back, waiting to see what the future holds.

British real estate consultants observed that Britain was experiencing its worst luxury market meltdown in seven years. Some analysts warn that Britain's housing market, in general, and its luxury market, in particular, could see further falling prices in the months ahead.

Oceans apart but sharing the same history and language, the U.S. is going through its own high-end luxury market plight. A CNBC news report from Aug. 31, 2016 reported that oversupply of luxury homes and volatility in the U.S. stock market were chipping sales of luxury homes. Redfin reported that regions worst hit included Miami Beach, where sales of luxury condos fell 21 percent; San Francisco, where prices dropped 11 percent; and Bellevue, Washington, where prices of mansions fell 4 percent. In July, the National Association of Realtors found that sales of homes priced above $1 million fell 4 percent from a year ago. According to Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel, a U.S. real estate appraisal and consulting firm, "We're seeing very robust activity in the entry space [of the luxury market] and the middle of the market, but we're not seeing it at the top."

Can the U.S. and the U.K. point to some predictive correlation for their luxury housing slump? Brexit. Britain's decision to leave the E.U. rocked both the British and the U.S. stock market, says Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. Investors hung back from buying luxury homes, as a result.

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In the wake of Brexit and subsequent stock market volatility, real estate discounts seem to be the new normal all over the United States. New York is experiencing its pangs.

The stream of case histories are steady and ongoing.

A unit at One57––once New York’s "Great Gatsby" neighborhood of ultra-luxury condominiums––was bought by an LLC-named Escape for $31.67 million in April 2014 and dangled in the market for two years before being relisted in May and September of this year for $25 million. The condominium has yet to be sold.

Other units in the same luxury tower, which overlooks Central Park, recently sold at a loss. And some bona fide apartments are simply at a standstill.

Krishna Rao, an economist at StreetEasy contributed decline in price to oversaturation in Manhattan's luxury residential real estate market, where sellers are receiving only about three percent of their original asking prices. The strange thing is that Donald Trump’s buildings in New York are slightly more resistant than others to price drop, which could be because “Trump buildings are typically priced on the lower end of luxury,” explains Rao.

That seems to be the only way to go.

Earlier this month, a CNBC news report announced that oversupply of luxury homes and volatility in the U.S. stock market rampaged the price of high-end homes all over the nation. Miami Beach, for instance, docked a drop of 21 percent in its sales of luxury condominiums. San Francisco recorded prices that dropped 11 percent, while whip-smart, super savvy Bellevue in Washington noted a 4 percent drop compared to a year ago, according to Redfin.

Returning to New York, experts advise that unless you’re prepared to discount heavily, sellers should prepare for about 398 days of their luxury condominium on the market compared with 283 days about a year ago. Meanwhile, the last average asking discount of properties that topped a million swooned to 14 percent of asking price, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly market snapshot.

Want to make money in the luxury market these days? Realtors recommend looking real hard at the entry level and middle space of the market. The top of the funnel where supply is tight? Forget it.

That’s how Trump’s buildings, which are not truly luxury properties, survive.

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A new report revealed that single women are the largest homebuyers and get saddled with the highest loans, despite the fact that they are less likely to default than are single men.

Researchers at the Housing Finance Policy Center of the Urban Institute found that single women constitute the second largest market for real estate, ranging anywhere from 15 percent to 20 percent during the last four years. In contrast, single men bought 9 percent of homes in that same period. That’s double as many single women as single men who are mopping up the housing market, likely because single women "want to create a nest, be part of a community," according to Lottie Kendall, an agent with Today/Sotheby's International Realty in the San Francisco Bay area. "They're buying to fulfill a dream." Single men, on the other hand, are more interested in possible financial gain and tax deductions.

The Urban Institute study, conducted by Laurie Goodman, co-director of the Housing Finance Policy Center, and Jun Zhu, a senior research associate, documented that single women tend to make larger down payments and are more likely to repay their mortgage than single men. In the prime boom times of 2004 to 2007, and in the housing bust of 2008 to 2010, single women defaulted at 0.8 percent and 0.1 percent lower rates than single men, although they earn a median lower income, have more debt, and are more likely to live in lower income areas.

Their impressive behavior goes punished.

In September 2016, Goodman and Zhu consulted a Federal Government database of mortgage transactions and proprietary loan-level data from CoreLogic, an analytics firm, and found that single women, on average, pay higher loans than single men. Worse still, single women are more often denied mortgages than single men, despite their superior payment performance.

In all cases, this is because single women come across as less confident borrowers at the lending stage and, so, exit with subprime or higher-cost financing. Goodman and Zhu argued that “we need to develop more robust and accurate measures of risk to ensure that we aren't denying mortgages to women who are fully able to make good on their payments."

Behavioral science brings a shaft of research that shows that women, generally, ask for 30 percent less money than men do when negotiating. This "confidence gap" may come from hormones or nurture, but either way, women suffer. For them to negotiate better, Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, authors of Womenomics, say:

Women need to stop thinking so much and just act…. Almost daily, new evidence emerges of just how much our brains can change over the course of our lives, in response to shifting thought patterns and behavior. If we keep at it, if we channel our talent for hard work, we can make our brains more confidence-prone.

Otherwise, single women will continue to pay more for mortgages than single men do.

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