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$65,600. a few years ago that would have bought you a property where I live. Now, that is the average price of a property in Monaco, per square meter. The figure comes from the latest release of Knight Frank's global index of luxury property prices. According to the index London is the second most expensive at $56,300, but this is hardly surprising given the advent of One Hyde Park, a block of flats with none priced under a million pounds.

While Paris' place in fifth is hardly surprising with a per square meter price of $40,500 the fact that it is at the back of 3 French cities in the top 5 is. Both Cap Ferrat and St Tropez are pricier than Paris with average per square meter prices of $54,600 and $40,800 respectively. We also note the huge gap between 3rd and 4th place.

For France to have 3 cities in the top 5 is significant enough but it doesn't stop there; the French cities of Courchevel and Cannes hold 6th and 7th place in the chart with per square meter averages of $38,800, and $31,900 respectively. The remainder of the top 10 is dominated by Asia, with Japan's Tokyo in 8th at $28,300, Hong Kong, China in 9th at $27,300 and Singapore in 10th at 27,100. Many will be surprised at the absence of Shanghai in the top 10, but it headlined as the fastest growing city, its per square meter price of $17,700 representing a growth of 21% over last year.

It is easy to look at $17,700 and notice only how it is way lower than Monaco's $65,600, so much so that we may partially forget that we are talking about prices per square meter here, in which case even $17,700 is an incredible figure to pay.

Of course Monaco is know stranger to such lavish pricing. This is the third year running it has stood at the top of the global luxury pricing table. Monaco's biggest deal last year was the purchase of La Belle Epoque, a 17,500-square-foot (1,600-square-meter) penthouse, for 240 million euros ($340 million) from Christian and Nick Candy in September. The buyer, whose name wasn't disclosed, came from the Middle East.

According to Knight Frank the dominance of established European cities is indicative of a long-running trend:
"The real success stories in 2010 confirm the advantages of a global brand and a diversity of demand requirements, like in London, New York and Paris," said Liam Bailey, Knight Frank's head of residential research.
"Tried-and-tested markets with security of infrastructure and political and legal stability will outperform in the long run," he added.