Knight Frank creates vital research on wealth

We were delighted to welcome Liam Bailey, Global Head of Research at international estate agency Knight Frank to our third Future Cities Forum, to talk about his research on the impact of the rise in global wealth.

Liam described how Knight Frank's annual Wealth Report was a response to a market gap. He stated that there has been quite a large amount of private bank analysis available generally but a lack of detailed examination of the rapid expansion of private wealth into property.

View Liam at the Forum here:

Liam moved on to highlight the UK's education sector as a core driver for foreign investment in London property. Schooling and universities remain an enormous pull for buying houses and flats, not just the lifestyle and cultural life in London.

In the commercial development sector, foreign companies - he stressed - wanted the validation of running and owning a property project in London to show that they were becoming a player on the world stage.

Knight Frank's analysis of where the money comes from emphasised that future growth was, predictably, "all about Asia" but that much of that money would be going into established markets like the US and the UK.

An over-arching theme to Liam's presentation was market restrictions: the trend of governmental interest and tracking of property investment flows. With the weight of money invested in property growing very strongly - especially in the luxury sector - the UK government continues to push for transparency on where the money comes from. This has the dual role of tax collecting but also intelligence on how property investment might influence stock market behaviour.