London has remained the most important city in terms of where the world’s ultra-wealthy live, invest, educate their children, grow their business and spend leisure time, according to new research.

London has beaten New York for the second year in a row as the most important city for ultra-high net worth individuals, while Singapore overtook Hong Kong in third place, according to Knight Frank’s Wealth Report 2016.

In 2015, almost 6,000 people dropped out of the UHNWI wealth bracket – those with at least $30 million in net assets – representing a three per cent decline to 187,468 UHNWIs, the first annual dip in ultra-wealthy populations since the global financial crisis began in 2008. Only 34 of the 91 countries tracked logged a rise in UHNWIs and Asia became a region of particular concern as macro-economic conditions bit.

“Of the 19 countries tracked within Asia Pacific, 12 saw their UHNWI populations fall in 2015, principally as a result of global macro-economic events, including the Chinese slowdown, the fall in the price of oil, volatile equity markets and the strengthening of the US dollar,” said Nicholas Holt, Knight Frank's head of research for Asia Pacific.

Worth noting however, Asia recorded the strongest UHNWI population growth between 2005 and 2015, with a 134 per cent increase to 41,072 UHNWIs. The region is also expected to top absolute growth over the next decade, rising by 26,927 by 2025, during which time the global UHNWI population is set to rise by 41 per cent to 263,483. This is a notably more sluggish rate compared to the 61 per cent increase over the previous 10 years.

Singapore has become a preferred location for the wealthy to live and do business in Asia. Knight Frank highlighted the country's conducive business environment, clear regulatory framework and progressive ecosystem of financial and business services as key factors of appeal.

“Strengthening Singapore's trade relations with East and Southeast Asian markets and positioning as a strategic location could be one of the key thrusts to growing the size of the external market. Additionally, advancing the growth of wealth management and professional services in key business industries could foster a greater impetus for UHNWIs to make Singapore a city of choice,” said Alice Tan, head of consultancy and research at Knight Frank Singapore.

In terms of UHNWI populations, New York dominated with 5,600, followed by London's 4,905 and Hong Kong's 3,854.