Welcome to the launch issue of the Candy Global Prime Sector Report, sponsored by Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management with exclusive property research from Savills. Inside, we focus on ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) around the world, who are set to grow and enjoy greater fortunes over the next five years.

As our research reveals, ultra-prime residential property in the premier cities of London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore remains close to their hearts and this continuing appetite for such investment is expected to exert even greater influence over global property markets.

It is estimated by Wealth-X, a firm that tracks the wealth of the most affluent, that there are just under 190,000 ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) in the world, enough people to fill the 2012 London Olympic Stadium 2.3 times. Each has net assets of more than $30m and their combined total wealth stands at almost $26 trillion, which would buy all the real estate in the UK more than three times over.

In this report, we look at the prime housing markets of the four cities at the forefront of global private wealth flows. Two are from the “new world” — Hong Kong and Singapore — and two from the “old world” — London and New York.

These are cities that, together, witnessed more than 300 residential real estate transactions in 2012 where the price was over £10 million. Together, the value of those transactions exceeded £6.6 billion. In London alone, £2.3 billion of £10 million plus transactions took place in 2012, a figure 18% higher than five years ago — despite the impact of the intervening credit crunch.