Richard Florida explores the rankings of the top global cities for the ultra-rich, as detailed in the 2012 Wealth Report released by real estate firm Knight Frank and Citi Private Bank.
If you're looking to find one of the reported 63,000 households worldwide with $100 million or more in assets, you'd be hard pressed to find a better location than London, New York, or Hong Kong, according to the new report, which also asked respondents to predict the most important cities in 10 years (the top two was unchanged, with Beijing replacing Hong Kong in third place).
According to Florida, the factors the study reports as driving the attraction of high-ranking cities to the "new global elite" are "personal safety and security" most, followed by "economic openness" and "social stability" which top "luxury housing" and "excellent educational opportunities."
Of course, there is a dark side to the expanding accumulation of capital by a global economic "plutonomy", notes Florida. "The rise of these protected enclaves is creating very real tensions between the very wealthy and more average city residents. Just one example - high-end apartments and townhouses in London and New York regularly top $50 million, pricing locals out of the market. It's no coincidence that London boiled over into riots last summer and that the Occupy movement was born on Wall Street."
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
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