The findings come in a report from Luxury Portfolio International, called Luxury Real Estate: What Matters Most to Today’s Global Elite. It surveyed 528 HNW investors.

At 23 per cent, the interest in selling within the next three years is smaller and buyers in the Middle East expressing a strong association between wealth and real estate.

Globally, 37 per cent of HNW individuals said an emotional tie was the top reason for buying their current primary residence. Only in North America did luxury homeowners state that the lot, location and size of the home was a bigger concern.

Some 41 per cent of all HNW individuals surveyed want to buy a traditional-style home for their next personal residence. Also 59 per cent of investors globally would prefer to buy urban luxury real estate, compared with 29 per cent of investors looking for surburban residences.

"Despite this emotional connection, 85 per cent of wealthy buyers consider the purchase of real estate a rational choice," said Stephanie Anton, president of Luxury Portfolio International. "Real estate signifies success for these buyers, both internally and externally to their peers. We are pleased to see that as we watch wealth grow among the top 10 per cent of consumers globally, so too do we see continued interest in, and appetite for, luxury real estate both as a financial as well as an emotional investment.”