PARIS: France is famous for croissants, high-end cuisine, a rich and diverse cheese offering, as well as varied landscapes, which makes it a desirable vacation setting for visitors from all over the world.
In 2024, more than 100 million tourists paid a visit. In terms of visitor numbers, France ranked once again in 2024 as the world’s leading tourist destination.
But France is also attractive to the ultra-wealthy, as indicated by the numerous ultra-luxurious villas, houses and apartments.
A new report by Henley & Partners, which looks at migration patterns of the ultra-wealthy and assesses the preferences of the world’s richest individuals to understand where they settle, reveals the country’s considerable appeal among this demographic.
For, while Paris is behind Monaco, New York, Hong Kong and London, in terms of most expensive city per square metre, France stands out as the country with the highest number of cities/towns with the highest prices per square meter in the world.
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, very close to Nice on the French Riviera, ranks fifth in this list of the most expensive destinations on the planet. The price per square metre is estimated at US$21,200.
The beautiful Mediterranean city outranks other wealthy celebrity havens such as Palm Beach, Miami Beach and Los Angeles in the US.
According to Henley & Partners, France boasts the most expensive cities in the world. There is no shortage of examples: Paris is sixth, Nice 13th, Cannes 15th, Antibes 18th and the small village of Eze 20th.
Indeed, this reveals a concentration of wealth on the Côte d’Azur, not far from the Italian border. And unsurprisingly the city that tops the ranking, Monaco, is in this same geographical area. The price per metre outstrips the other destinations at US$38,800.
Note that this ranking has been established based on the real estate value of the destinations analysed. When the concentration of the largest fortunes is taken as the metric, the podium becomes quite different, with New York, the Bay Area (which includes San Francisco and Silicon Valley) and Tokyo coming in as top cities for millionaires.
Top 20 most expensive cities in the world (based on price per square metre):
- Monaco
- New York (USA)
- Hong Kong
- London (UK)
- Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (France)
- Paris (France)
- Sydney (Australia)
- Palm Beach (US)
- Miami Beach (US)
- Los Angeles (US)
- Singapore
- Geneva (Switzerland)
- Nice (France)
- Portofino (Italy)
- Cannes (France)
- Tokyo (Japan)
- Lugano (Switzerland)
- Antibes (France)
- Porto Cervo (Italy)
- Eze (France)