by Simon Black
In late 2019, the real estate firm Knight Frank published a list of the most expensive streets in the world, i.e. the individual neighborhoods with outrageously pricey real estate.
The top 10 list included four streets in New York City (57th Street, Central Park South, Fifth Avenue, and Park Avenue), three in Hong Kong, two in London, and one each in Los Angeles and Palm Beach.
But global real estate changed immeasurably the following year in 2020.
Places like Manhattan have seen a population exodus after 18 months of idiotic pandemic rules, rising taxes, and destructive woke policies, while other cities and neighborhoods have seen a surge in demand.
So that top 10 list is certainly going to change.
One of the places that may very well make an updated list of most expensive streets in the world is an upscale neighborhood in… Puerto Rico.
We talked about this several times in the past– Puerto Rico has some of the most attractive tax incentives in the world. People of just about every nationality can benefit for Puerto Rico’s tax incentives. But they’re especially attractive to US citizens.
With the direction that the US is headed– Marxist politicians, higher income taxes, higher estate taxes, wealth taxes, etc.– a lot of people have become fed up and are leaving the US to take advantage of Puerto Rico’s tax incentives.
But this has created a major supply and demand imbalance in real estate; in the most popular expat neighborhoods, property prices have skyrocketed. And there are a few pockets of the Puerto Rican real estate market that have seen prices quadruple in the past year and are now as expensive as MONACO.
Puerto Rico is not alone, of course. There are cities and neighborhoods all over the world that have seen major price increases.
COVID-related migration is definitely a factor. But another key driver of higher real estate prices is central bank policy.
As we discussed a few weeks ago on our podcast, the Federal Reserve in the United States has not only kept mortgage rates at record low levels, but they have printed hundreds of billions of dollars in the last few months alone to ‘support’ the US housing market.
This seems completely bizarre: the median US home price has never been more expensive. Most local real estate markets are booming. Why do these people think the housing market needs their support??
Viktorija and I devoted today’s episode of the Sovereign Man Freedom Podcast to housing; it’s a topic that affects just about everyone, everywhere in the world, whether you’re renting an apartment in Toronto, buying a house in Austin, selling a flat in London, or investing in a REIT in Sydney.
We talk about some reasons WHY property prices have risen so much, and some key metrics to monitor to get a sense of where prices are going in the future.
You can watch it here (on YouTube) or here (on SovereignMan.tv).
Or download and listen to our podcast here: