Price per square foot can be an interesting approach to pricing real estate and we though it would be interesting to compare luxury condominium prices around the world to other types of space for sale. How much space in a luxury condominium would you get for £100,000? These prices are based on Knight Frank’s annual wealth report 2007 and may have changed slightly since then. These are the top ten contenders.

1. London

London currently tops the list. £100,000 buys you 43.5 square feet. Coincidentally, this is exactly the same footprint as the Ford Escape, an American SUV. So you can rest assured you will be able to park the car at this price.

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Victoria Park Apartments Moscow[Photo credits to Miraluz06 on Flickr]

Moscow News has published an interesting snapshot of Moscow’s residential property market, both the for sale and for rent. The key observation seems to be that letting agencies are assuming an increasingly important role in the rental market and that the higher end of the market is becoming proportionately more important. The vital ingredient that agencies bring to the process is ensuring that all the properties on their books are available with legally binding rental agreements. Going down this route has the obvious advantages of protecting the unwary foreigner from abrupt evictions or rent rises.

There’s no disputing that Moscow is an expensive place to live. The Mercer cost of living survey in this spring placed the city in top place with a cost of living that was over a third higher than New York City’s. Naturally, costs of accommodation are an important feature of this and at the beginning of the year Moscow was sixth most expensive European capital in terms of purchase costs and fifth highest in terms of rental and rental yield. Renaissance Capital estimate that Moscow’s residential property prices have averaged a 90% rise in the 12 months to 2nd Quarter 2007 and forecasts that the rises will continue, all-be-it at the more sedate level of 16 to 11% a year through 2007 and the succeeding three years (read report here (pdf)). However, the latest statistics taken from Global Property Guide: suggest that by May this year rental yields were on the way down, from above 8% to between 4.5 and 6%. Rentals have been failing to keep up with purchase prices, particularly at the higher end of the market. One reason for this is the competitiveness of mortgage rates. Low interest rates should fuel the rise in residential prices.*
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