The report says with cross-border flows largely halted by travel bans, markets reliant on large inflows of international demand, such as Monaco and Dubai, saw prime sales volumes decline, while Vancouver and Miami saw domestic buyers step in to fill the gap.
Closer to home, the east coast of Tasmania was a sought-after travel destination.
Knight Frank’s head of residential research, Australia Michelle Ciesielski said, the market for luxury collectables, which largely relies on the auction market, has been detrimentally impacted by COVID-19.
“Some luxury investments are performing better than others, particularly the higher-value investments. Handbags, for instance, have performed far better than the top end of the art market where no painting sold for over $US100 million in 2020 for the first time in a number of years,” Ms Ciesielski said.
To make the enforced lockdown more palatable, fine wine came in second place in data supplied by Art Market Research for Knight Frank’s The Wealth Report 2021, released on Wednesday.
Following a year of consolidation, wine markets experienced strong growth in 2020, up 13 per cent compared to a year earlier according to Wine Owners, which pulls together the Fine Wine Icons Index.
Loading
Unlike the global financial crisis, the wine market has held its nerve throughout the pandemic, merchants did not mark down prices and the market has been stable, the report says.
With cross-border flows largely halted by travel bans, those markets reliant on large inflows
of international demand, such as Monaco and Dubai, saw prime sales volumes decline, while Vancouver and Miami saw domestic buyers step in to fill the gap.
When looking at the performance prime property, Ms Ciesielski said growth in the number of ultra-wealthy people in Australia was 4.5 times higher than the growth seen in this population globally in 2020, despite the slowdown in economic growth following the global pandemic.
Loading
Sydney had the highest share of both ultra-high-net-worth individuals with 33 per cent and high-net-worth individuals – with a net worth of over $10 million – of 25 per cent, followed by Melbourne, Perth then Brisbane.
“Our four major capital cities of Australia comprise 74 per cent of the ultra-high-net-worth population and 66 per cent of the high-net-worth population,” she said.
