$1 million: how many square meters of luxury?
Sixteen square meters in Monaco. Twenty-eight in Geneva or Singapore. Thirty-seven in Paris and Tokyo. Sixty-two in Dubai. With the same budget, real estate purchasing power changes radically depending on the major luxury markets.
What does $1 million really represent in luxury real estate?
Comparing Monaco, New York, Paris, Singapore or Dubai based solely on their local prices is difficult: currencies differ, markets do not all define prestige in the same way and the types of properties are very different.
Knight Frank has been using a particularly telling indicator for several years: how many square meters of prime residential real estate can a budget of $1 million theoretically be purchased?
In its Wealth Report 2026, the firm compares twenty major international markets based on values observed in the fourth quarter of 2025.
The indicator does not describe the average price of all housing in a city. It concerns its prime residential segment : locations, buildings and properties belonging to the top of the local market.
A simple indicator, but much more informative than an average price
A common motto
All destinations are scaled to a single budget of $1 million. This allows for direct comparison of markets normally expressed in euros, pounds sterling, Swiss francs, Singapore dollars, or dirhams.
The top of the market, not the whole town
The values refer to prime. A standard apartment in the suburbs should therefore not be compared to these benchmarks.
Exchange rates also matter
Since the comparison is expressed in dollars, a currency fluctuation can change the number of square meters without local prices having changed in the same proportions.
The surface doesn't tell the whole story
A view of Central Park, an apartment in Mayfair, a property on Nassim Road or a residence on Palm Jumeirah cater to markets that are not interchangeable.
How many prime square meters are there for 1 million dollars?
The markets are ranked from lowest to highest real estate purchasing power. The bars provide a proportional representation of the surface area accessible with the same budget.
The same million doesn't tell the same story at all
In the Monaco prime segment, $1 million corresponds to a surface area closer to a large bedroom than a family apartment.
The same budget represents more than double the surface area in the upper part of the Parisian market, although the exact address can radically change the reality of an acquisition.
Despite a dramatic rise in prime values in recent years, Dubai remains significantly more generous in terms of surface area than major European and Asian hubs.
Where $1 million buys much less than in 2020
Knight Frank also compares the purchasing power of a million dollars between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the fourth quarter of 2025. The decline in surface area is dramatic in several markets.
Dubai
183 m² in 2020, compared to only 62 m² in 2025.
Strongest contraction in purchasing power among the twenty markets presented.Tokyo
62 m² in 2020, compared to 37 m² in 2025.
A particularly rapid transformation of the Japanese prime market.Miami
97 m² in 2020, compared to 58 m² five years later.
The Florida luxury boom is directly reflected in purchasing power.Geneva
37 m² in 2020, compared to 28 m² in 2025.
The scarcity of prime Geneva has increased the pressure on the accessible surface area.Singapore
36 m² in 2020, compared to 28 m² in 2025.
Despite strong regulations, the prime segment remains highly valued.London
31 m² in 2020, compared to 33 m² in 2025.
One of the few major markets where a million dollars buys slightly more space.From the extreme scarcity of Monaco to markets still offering surface area
16 to 28 m²: extremely rare
Monaco, Hong Kong, Geneva, and Singapore top the rankings. Constrained land availability, concentration of wealth, and international demand severely limit real estate purchasing power.
33 to 46 m²: major global hubs
London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Paris, Vienna, Sydney, Shanghai and Milan form a group of major metropolises where $1 million typically buys a few dozen square meters of prime space.
58 to 62 m²: Miami, Berlin, Dubai
These three markets offer significantly more space, but their trajectories are very different. Dubai and Miami, in particular, have experienced a dramatic reduction in purchasing power since 2020.
75 to 96 m²: more space
Madrid, Lisbon, Melbourne and Mumbai are the panel markets where the same million dollars now buys the largest prime area.
Why does real estate purchasing power vary so much?
Monaco, Hong Kong, and Singapore have extremely limited building space. Physical scarcity exerts structural pressure on the best locations.
The growth of wealth, the establishment of family offices and the arrival of new entrepreneurs are supporting demand in several major international hubs.
Taxation, security, quality of life, political stability and the economic environment are shifting some of the demand from one destination to another.
Rankings expressed in dollars also vary with local currencies. International purchasing power, therefore, does not solely reflect the nominal evolution of real estate prices.
Turnkey properties, ideally located and ready to move into, often command significant premiums when they become scarce.
Carré d'Or, The Peak, Mayfair, Billionaires' Row, Saint-Germain or Nassim Road can far exceed the overall benchmark of their city.
Record prices, cities and transactions
The million-dollar indicator provides a comparative snapshot. Our other studies allow us to understand the prices, transactions, and dynamics specific to each market.
Four ways to measure the global luxury real estate market
Relative prices, super-prime sales, micro-markets and value growth: these four complementary files allow us to read the global market from different angles.
Twenty markets compared with the same budget reference.
02 · Super-prime Luxury sales over $10 million: global rankingWhich cities carry out the most very high-value transactions?
03 · Micro-markets The most expensive neighborhoods in the worldCarré d'Or, The Peak, Mayfair, Billionaires' Row, Nassim Road and other ultra-prime addresses.
04 · Evolution The luxury real estate markets that have seen the most growthFive years of growth and transformation of major global destinations.
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Comparable data, with their limitations
Data verified on October 9, 2026.The main indicator comes from Wealth Report 2026 and corresponds to prime residential values in the fourth quarter of 2025.
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