Over ten editions, the BARNES Global Property Handbook has established itself as the global benchmark for high-end residential real estate. A decade may seem both short and long in a lifetime, yet few could have anticipated the scale of change since we first launched this report. Two major phenomena have shaped this decade. First, the accelerated digitalization of our economies and daily lives. Second, the Covid-19 pandemic, a true black swan event that brought time to a standstill and challenged both our habits and our certainties.
In the face of these disruptions, luxury real estate has shown its ability to reinvent itself. Some safe-haven markets have remained firmly on their pedestals, while at the same time new destinations have emerged, moving beyond their former status as holiday resorts to become true places to live. The year 2025 has followed in the footsteps of the turbulent vintages of 2022, 2023, and 2024: despite international tensions, trade frictions, and geopolitical uncertainty, momentum has not been broken. Entrepreneurs have continued to build, creators to create, and investors to invest. Let us salute the energy of those who, in times of adversity, choose to see the glass two-thirds full rather than two-thirds empty.
Over the past decade, luxury real estate has confirmed its role as a haven. In 2025, UHNWI renewed their confidence in it, reinforcing a deep-rooted trend: the rise of "four-season cities." Once purely vacation destinations, they are becoming full-fledged places of residence—where people live, work (often remotely), and raise their children, while remaining connected to the world from a seaside villa, a mountain chalet, or a wine estate.
More than a real estate shift, this is a genuine quest for meaning—a search for balance, coherence, and quality of life in a constantly evolving world.
The BARNES City Index 2026 highlights this phenomenon, observable in Comporta, Marbella, and Mallorca, as well as in Aspen and Whistler. UHNWI expectations have evolved, and a global network like BARNES is here to meet them—offering the right solutions, in the right destinations, with the level of service this clientele expects.
This 10th edition of the BARNES Global Property Handbook is based on benchmark studies conducted notably by Altrata 2025, Julius Bär, PwC, UBS, and Capgemini, as well as on a 2025 survey of a sample representing over 25,000 BARNES clients, employees, and partners. It serves as an essential guide to understanding the challenges of the luxury real estate market and the aspirations that will shape the coming decade. The figures and trends presented in this report are current as of 15 December 2025.