The world of property has never been bigger, nor more diverse. Only a few years ago British buyers tended to look for very specific property-types in a small number of buying destinations, dominated by the Mediterranean countries, Portugal and the USA. Now, new emerging markets seem to pop up every week; as the focus has shifted from a traditional holiday-home market to a more investment-oriented one, previously unknown destinations have surged into the property limelight, each offering its own unique attractions and touting itself as the next big thing.

However, what the vast majority of these “new wave” destinations have in common is that they offer very similar products to those which previously dominated the market: holiday properties. Whether on the sun-drenched Adriatic coast, in the ski zones of Bulgaria, or as far afield as the tropical highlands of Borneo, the new markets clamouring for buyers’ attention tend to offer, essentially, more of the same – but at much lower prices than their established, familiar counterparts.

This is all well and good for those just looking for their dream getaways. But – thanks in no small part to a collapse in confidence in traditional investment options such as pension plans - the majority of buyers are now looking for homes which combine lifestyle appeal with the potential to generate significant profits, and the industry around the world has been very quick to exploit this to the utmost. Promising the perfect combination of superior capital growth and decent rental returns, agents and developers have made billions selling coastal, mountain and even rural homes in a mind-boggling succession of far-flung locations which are, in fact, immeasurably better suited for the pure lifestyle market.

This is not to suggest, or course, that profits and pleasure are mutually exclusive: far from it. Many buyers have managed to secure properties which have offered a great deal on both sides of the lifestyle/investment divide. But, similarly, many have not: the explosive growth in the industry has not necessarily been accompanied by a similar expansion in the awareness and understanding of the buyers themselves, and increasingly sophisticated marketing and sales tactics have, unfortunately, led many buyers wanting to have their cake and eat it into making purchases which end up satisfying neither their investment nor their lifestyle needs.

At Citiesinvest.com – as the name suggests – we believe that to make the very most from a property investment, a would-be buyer should look to the world’s urban centres rather than to its holiday hot spots. While appreciating that in many traditional – and emerging - lifestyle markets there is still a buck to be made, it’s away from the sun, sea, sand and snow that one can find the most profitable properties, and the most secure investments.

Consider this: for the first time in human history, over 50% of the people on this planet – in other words, well over three billion individuals - now live in urban areas. Cities are expanding at a faster rate than ever before; tens of millions of people each and every year move from rural locations into towns and cities, driven by the need for employment, resources and a better way of life. In China alone, the equivalent of a city the size of Manchester needs to be constructed every single month to cope with the immense exodus from the countryside, and this situation is mirrored in almost every other country on Earth. Demand for urban property has never been higher – and will continue to grow for decades.