London&a;nbsp;will remain the world&s;s leading &s;wealth center&s; in 2019, defying Brexit and pushing its only serious rival, New York, into second place.
&q;The results show that London has shrugged off concerns regarding Brexit to retake the top spot from New York,&q;&a;nbsp;says the Knight Frank Wealth Report, which&a;nbsp;is published today.
In ranking global cities, Knight Frank, a global real estate consultancy, looks at a variety&a;nbsp;of metrics including the number of UHNWIs (individuals worth over $30 million), the volume of property investments and lifestyle. London beat New York in all of these metrics except for one - investment - where London comes second.
When it comes to lifestyle, which counts tallies such as the number of five-star hotels (&l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestravelguide/2019/02/21/london-earns-more-five-star-hotels-than-any-city/#1ccc95b4205a&q;&g;London has 76&l;/a&g;), universities and luxury dining, New York ranks third.
London has now held Knight Frank&s;s top spot for over five years, fending off other rivals, which include the Asian powerhouses of Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore. No other European city comes close.
&l;strong&g;How London Does It&l;/strong&g;
Brexit, it would appear, has not diminished London&s;s appeal abroad, which is where much of its wealth originates.
Last week, data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed&a;nbsp;Britain had the largest number of Tier 1 Investor Visa applications since&a;nbsp;the threshold&a;nbsp;was raised to &a;pound;2 million ($2.6 million) in 2014.
These visas - which allow indefinite leave to remain in the U.K. after five years - appeal to wealthy individuals from outside the U.K. and E.U. who want to live in Britain.
Their popularity is unlikely to fade soon according to Knight Frank. &q;Data from our Attitudes Survey indicates that 36 percent of UHNWIs already hold a second passport, up from 34 percent last year, with 26 percent planning to emigrate permanently, up from 21 percent.&q; Many of those looking to emigrate would choose the U.K. over any other country, the data shows.
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&l;strong&g;Will New York Fight Back?&l;/strong&g;
Matthew Hudson, founder and chief executive of asset management consultancy MJ Hudson, believes London is where it is thanks to America: &q;The U.S. made London the biggest in the world because they set up here.&q;
It was the Big Bang, when the U.K. radically overhauled its financial markets in 1986, when American money started flowing across the pond. Similarly, after Brexit,&a;nbsp;&q;if the Americans back us then London will be strong otherwise we&a;rsquo;re back to the 1970s,&q; says Hudson.
One American already has. &l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverwilliams1/2019/01/21/american-billionaire-defies-brexit-by-buying-londons-most-expensive-house/#518e15a36bb0&q;&g;In January, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin&a;nbsp;paid &a;pound;95 million ($122 million) for&a;nbsp;one of the most expensive homes ever sold in London.&l;/a&g;
Much of American wealth, therefore, favors London over its own financial capital, New York, turning the former into the world&s;s leading wealth center at the expense of the latter.
Immigration law experts at Irwin Mitchell Private Wealth believe that despite the challenges posed by Brexit, London will remain a world-class city for many years to come partly because the global elite continue to invest in the city.&a;nbsp;Philip Barth, head of immigration, says that &a;ldquo;London is still going to be a world-class city for the foreseeable future.&q;
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