A final summary is that it’s in the interests of developers and, to a lesser degree, agents, to sell lifestyle homes in non-urban locations. This is due to the financial practicalities: land in urban centres is extraordinarily expensive, and comes to the market much less frequently, compared with all but the most sought-after holiday hot spots, and construction costs – thanks to the increased difficulty of transportation, the need to construct taller buildings to maximise returns, fees for utility installation and a host of other factors – are similarly much higher. The profit-margins for building in cities tend to be much lower than in holiday areas – one reason why city-centre property is dominated by commercial buildings with much higher rental charges. With this in mind, the industry has, in general, reacted to the growing investment savvy and the need for profit among buyers not by shifting its focus to the dynamic urban markets of the 21st century but by touting (and unfortunately, in many cases, wildly overstating) the investment qualities of its traditional holiday market – often to the detriment of the unwary buyer.

It’s vital to bear in mind that not all cities make for good investments, despite the advantages listed above. Each city is its own market and many of these markets around the world have been sluggish for a long time, for local economic reasons, as a result of idiosyncrasies in a given location’s property culture, or because of numerous other factors. It’s not up for debate, for example, that even an unappetising, run-of-the-mill apartment in a saturated coastal holiday market feeling the effects of restricted consumer spending would still make for a safer investment than, say, a pied-a-terre in Baghdad or a villa in Pyongyang. Just because the investment fundamentals underpinning urban markets are in general much sounder than their vacation counterparts, doesn’t mean that any old urban market is a good choice.

Nor should one think that a country’s capital or largest city is necessarily its best investment market: many capitals are either saturated or stagnant while many minor city markets with their own unique drivers are booming far in excess of their capital counterparts. The cities chosen by Citiesinvest.com have been selected on their individual merits and for many distinct and unrelated reasons, but above all because they provide sensible, robust, innovative and profitable alternatives to traditional investment vehicles – and because it is for their investment qualities, and not because they offer a stretch of sandy beach or a few ski runs, that they stand out above the huge crowd of possible buying locations currently competing for your hard-earned investment capital.

All this may sound pretty self-evident, but these are vital concepts for anyone looking to place money in bricks and mortar. If that stretch of sandy beach, or those ski runs, are what you really want, then take the lifestyle option, lie back (or strap on your skis) and enjoy – and you may well glean a profit into the bargain. But if it’s profit you’re after, whether through capital growth, rentals or both, the flourishing and rapidly expanding cities of the world are the logical choice for the modern investor. That choice is yours: and you’re already well on your way to making the right one just by coming to Citiesinvest.com