The rich are getting richer, propelling a big rise in the cost of luxury homes in the capital that contrasts starkly with falling house prices elsewhere in the market.

According to today's 2008 wealth report from Citi Private Bank and Knight Frank, London is the most expensive city in the world to buy luxury residential property. Price growth last year easily outpaced that of rivals such as Monaco.

With the ranks of dollar millionaires across the world swelling by more than 300,000 in 2007, more cash than ever is being lavished on super-luxury properties. Such homes are equipped with the latest gadgets and ultra-tight security.

Although more luxury residential properties are coming on to the market from specialist developers such as the Candy brothers, prices in London barely slowed last year.

The average price of a luxury pad in London rose 29 per cent to €46,000 (£36,500) per square metre in 2007, the report says.

The number of £10m-plus sales in Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Belgravia in the six months to January 2008 was 190 per cent higher than in the same period a year earlier.

Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Berkshire are now among the top 35 most expensive property areas in the world.

The fact that these rub shoulders with more exotic locations such as the C?te d'Azur, Milan and Barbados attests to the strength of the bull run in house prices in the UK during the past decade.

The average increase in capital values of prime property globally was 11 per cent in 2007.

But the report says price growth for high-end residential property around the world has slowed and it records a drop in price in certain prime locations.

In Dublinprices of luxury property dropped by 15 per cent in 2007. There were also falls in Ibiza and in prime US locations such as Palm Beach, Florida, and San Diego, California.

The US was generally more subdued than elsewhere in the world.

One of the authors of the report, Liam Bailey of Knight Frank, warned that the good times could be coming to an end for the high-end property markets, in the short term at least.

“There has been a slowdown coming and we now expect prices to begin to fall in the UK, US and beyond following the boom in prime properties in the developed world over the past few years,” Mr Bailey said.

There had been little real impact on prices in global cities yet, however, and property remained a sound investment for the longer term, he said.

The nearest city to London in terms of price last year was Monaco, where values reached €43,750/sq m, and France's St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, which saw one of the highest increases in price of 39 per cent to €43,490/sq m.

In these three areas, €1m would buy a small top-end studio flat – the same cost as a five-bedroom mansion in cities in China such as Guangzhou and Shanghai.

But it is in these emerging market cities that some of the strongest growth in house prices is taking place. Prime house prices in Guangzhou rose 28 per cent during the period.

St Petersburg and Moscow, where the rate of growth in 2007 was 38 per cent and 35 per cent respectively, benefited from a combination of increasing affluence and a lack of supply.

富人变得更加富有，推动英国首都豪华宅邸的价格大幅攀升，与其它地区房价的不断下跌形成鲜明对比。

花旗私人银行(Citi Private Bank)与地产中介机构 Knight Frank周一发布的2008年财富报告显示，伦敦是全球购买豪华住宅价格最为昂贵的城市。去年的价格涨幅轻松超过了摩纳哥等竞争对手。

由于全世界逾30万人在2007年加入美元百万富翁的行列，富翁们正将史无前例的巨额现金投入超级奢侈地产。这些住宅均配备有最新设备及超级严密的保安措施。

虽然Candy brothers等奢侈地产开发商正在向市场输送更多奢侈住宅，但伦敦去年的价格升势基本没有放缓。

该报告称，伦敦豪宅的均价去年上涨29%，至每平米4.6万欧元（合3.65万英镑）。

在截至2008年1月的6个月中，在切尔西(Chelsea)、骑士桥(Knightsbridge)及贝尔格拉维亚(Belgravia)，1000万英镑以上住宅的交易数量同比增长190%。

萨里郡、白金汉郡、汉普郡及贝克郡现已跻身于全球35个最昂贵地区之列。

上述地区能与蔚蓝海岸(C?te d'Azur)、米兰及巴巴多斯等更具异国情调的区域比肩，这一事实验证了过去10年英国房地产牛市的强劲程度。

全球高端房地产的资本价值在2007年平均上涨11%。

但该报告表示，全球高端住宅的价格增长有所放缓，一些黄金地段的价格甚至出现下跌。

在都柏林，豪宅的价格在2007年下跌15%。价格下跌的地区还包括西班牙的伊比沙岛及美国的棕榈滩、佛罗里达、圣地亚哥与加州等黄金地区。

总体而言，美国市场较世界其它地区表现得更为疲软。

该报告的作者之一、Knight Frank的利亚姆•贝利(Liam Bailey)警告称，高端房地产市场的好日子可能已是屈指可数，至少在短期是这样的。

贝利称：“市场减缓正在不断逼近，我们目前预计，经历了过去几年发达国家的高端房地产热潮之后，英国、美国及其它地区的价格将开始下跌。”

但是，他表示，全球各城市的房价尚未受到太多的真正影响，而且就更长期而言，房地产仍然是一项不错的投资。

去年，与伦敦价格最接近的城市是摩纳哥，那里的价格升至每平米43750欧元，其次是法国的圣-让-费拉角(St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat)，价格上涨39%，至每平米43490欧元，为价格升幅最大的地区之一。

在这三个地区，100万欧元只能购买一个小小的高端零居室，与中国广州和上海等城市一套5居室的大房子价值相当。

但正是这些新兴市场城市的房价增长最为强劲。在同一时期，广州的高端房价上涨了28%。

由于富裕程度提高和供应不足的共同影响，圣彼得堡与莫斯科2007年的房价增幅分别为38%和35%。

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