If this is the golden age of global property, its wealthiest collectors constitute a new breed of connoisseur. In fact, a top wine cellar and eclectic mix of art can no longer hold a candle to an international collection of prestigious homes. The dramatic rise in the population of ultra wealthy people has been one of the main factors in the recent price-spike in the super-prime housing markets of the world’s key cities. Others are the increasingly global nature of business and property’s rise in the asset distribution of those individuals.

“Although markets around the world have peaked or are declining, the very top end of the range of properties has held its own,” says Liam Bailey, head of residential research for estate agency Knight Frank. He points to Manhattan, where prices rose by 22 per cent last year at a time when the rest of the US fell into its sub-prime gloom. There has been a similar effect in the UK. “In London there were three times as many sales above the £10m mark in the three months to the end of April compared to the same period last year.” Shanghai, Geneva, Paris, Hong Kong and other desirable destination addresses have followed suit.