The 15th edition of the Knight Frank Wealth Report was released this morning. The report is a comprehensive outlook which tracks the annual trends and behaviors of high net worth & ultra high net worth individuals across the globe. It uses data from over 600 private bankers, wealth advisors and family offices, as well as data from auctioneers.

Their findings are consistent with what you’d expect during an economic downturn, over the past 12 months the number of Millionaires and Billionaires have grown and they’ve all been in search for better returns in this low interest rate environment. Unsurprisingly a huge amount still consider property as a key asset class and are intent in putting more money into them in the coming months. However on the topic of passion assets it seems that Hermés Handbags continue to lead the way rising by with 17% in the last year.

As a comparison, watches saw a 5% increase whilst Art was down by -11%, mainly due to the lack of public/auction sales. After a dip in recent years, classic cars saw a 6% increase in 2020 which is perhaps linked to the fact that most manufactures will cease building internal combustion engines over the next 9 years, so this will no doubt drive ongoing demand as collectors want to own a piece of history.