Miami, Moscow, and Dubai will be the world's best-performing markets in 2013.

Despite prolonged economic uncertainties, Knight Frank predicts that 2013 will be a year of continuous growth in several major cities around the world. properties for sale

The world's luxury markets have come full circle since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. Luxury prices fell as market confidence waned during the global slump, but within a year, key markets like London, Hong Kong, and Shanghai were rebounding again, with top quarterly price gains of 5.5 percent, 5.6 percent, and 9.8 percent, respectively.

The Prime Global Cities Index was created by Knight Frank in 2006 to track the performance of luxury housing markets in some of the world's most important cities. The index is now 18.7% higher than its financial crisis trough from Q2 2009. The speed with which the index re-bound is astonishing; by Q1 2010, it had regained its pre-crisis high.

Highlights for 2013 include: Expect prime residential prices to grow 2.5 percent on average across the 14 cities covered in our estimate in 2013, with Miami, Moscow, and Dubai leading the way.

The most serious threat to the world's most prestigious residential markets is a dramatic slowdown in the global economy, closely followed by government cooling measures.

However, as HNWIs seek the safety of'safe-haven' assets, the current economic instability is seen as a crucial driver of demand in premier cities.

In locations like New York, Moscow, and Miami, supply, or the lack thereof, will be a crucial factor of price performance in 2013.

Price rise in Asia will be restrained in 2013 due to government-imposed regulatory measures, but the west-east shift in the economic balance of power offers more hopeful prospects in the medium run.

Prime real estate has not only weathered the storm and outperformed its mainstream equivalents; it has thrived as a result of the uncertain economic climate. The long-running Eurozone debt crisis, geopolitical concerns surrounding the Arab Spring, and the lack of other high-performing asset classes have all contributed to its popularity.

Low interest rates, the preference among HNWIs for open and transparent markets, and the enormous amount of wealth creation that was simultaneously occurring in the world's developing countries all contributed to the swift transition from "crisis" to "safe haven."

The number of centamillionaires (those with $100 million or more in disposable assets) increased by 29% globally between 2006 and 2011. Over the same time period, the number of centa-millionaires in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and South-Central Asia increased by 67 percent, 80 percent, and 200 percent, respectively.

HNWIs in these emerging countries have sought beyond their national borders for double-digit yearly returns, resulting in a considerable increase in cross-border investment flows. For wealthy Brazilian, Venezuelan, and Argentinean purchasers, Miami has delivered, while a rising number of Indian and Iranian HNWIs are flocking to Dubai.

What will be the hottest topics in 2013?

We predicted three worldwide trends that would have an increasing impact on the world's luxury residential markets in Knight Frank's 2012 Forecast: wealth creation, the expansion of'safe-haven' investments, and the expanding gap between East and West.

In 2013, Knight Frank anticipates the same tendencies to continue, although currency fluctuations will have a greater impact on the transfer of wealth from city to city. Prime prices in New York have dropped 2.6 percent since 2008, but when currency fluctuations are factored in, Chinese buyers get a 17.6 percent discount.

The search for one-of-a-kind "trophy" homes will pick up steam in 2013, owing to the rising quality of new construction. Tall skyscrapers in major gateway cities are already attracting the attention of a growing number of HNWIs, and this trend is expected to continue.

The world's wealthiest will continue to micro-manage their property portfolios in the coming year, weighing lifestyle advantages against tax benefits and currency changes, but price performance, both historic and anticipated, will be essential to most decisions.

The prognosis

Unless the euro collapses, the US falls off its fiscal cliff, or Asian protectionism rises, the picture for luxury residences in the world's major cities is one of cautious optimism.

The Knight Frank projections indicated in the map below represent our expectations for prime price growth in 2013; we've also included each city's actual price performance from September 2012 for comparison. We anticipate a 2.5 percent increase in premium prices across the 14 cities examined in 2013. In 2012, we forecasted a 0.6 percent increase in average price rise.

In eleven of the 14 cities covered in our estimate, we predict prices to climb or remain steady in 2013. Due to constrained prime supply and the projected delivery of a number of superprime projects, Moscow is likely to have the strongest price growth of all 14 cities (we anticipate annual rise of 10%).

Another good news story comes from Dubai, where we predict luxury property prices to climb by 5% to 10% in 2013. Professionals relocating from the UK and Asia are making more inquiries, but the availability of high-quality family homes is basically unchanged.

Only three cities - Paris, Geneva, and Shanghai - are projected to see price drops, each by less than 5%.

In Paris, the market has been sluggish in the second part of 2012, but once President Hollande's austerity measures have taken hold, we expect improved clarity in 2013. Despite political dampening measures, new construction is still limited in places like as Paris, which may improve sales absorptions.

In 2012, foreign demand in Geneva fluctuated, and new lending rules impacted borrowing power.

In Shanghai, though, the limitations on property purchases that went into effect this year are expected to continue. This includes prohibiting non-resident singles from purchasing property in the city.

Supply restrictions are projected to be a deciding factor for some cities in 2013. Price rise is projected to be aided by a scarcity of high-end residences in Moscow and Miami. However, while there is a shortage of luxury properties in Monaco and New York, there is not enough of an imbalance to drive prices much higher in 2013.

Forecasts for the mainstream housing market are arguably more straightforward than those for the top market. It is feasible to determine levels of affordability by examining important variables such as house prices to income ratios, house prices to rent ratios, interest rates, and disposable incomes. The primary market, on the other hand, follows a different set of rules.

Instead, non-quantifiable aspects like lifestyle, market confidence, and the ease with which HNWIs might depart a market are frequently taken into account. The current situation in Asia, where markets are increasingly regulated by governments, makes it difficult to get a realistic picture of a key market's growth potential.

Risk assessment

While the estimates we've offered indicate what we estimate to be the most likely outcome for 2013, there are a number of potential stumbling blocks that could throw our predictions off track.

With no end in sight to the Eurozone's prolonged crisis, it's no surprise that global and domestic economic concerns continue to pose the greatest threat to property prices in 2013.

While the weakening global economy is the largest risk in places like Geneva, Monaco, Dubai, and Hong Kong, there are more insular concerns about the health of domestic economies in places like Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Ho Chi Minh City, and Sydney.

Government intervention is becoming more essential in both mature real estate markets, such as London and Paris, and fast expanding ones, such as Singapore, where the government recently tightened immigration policies and imposed house lending limitations. The principal cooling measures are ranked in terms of the degree of risk they pose in Figure 4.

Additional regulatory controls in top cities throughout the world, such as a 15% additional stamp tax for foreign buyers in Hong Kong and a stamp duty hike for homes worth more than £2 million in the UK, might have an influence at the very high end of the market.

Interestingly, despite their proximity to the problem and wider concerns about the global economy's health, none of the European cities polled ranked the Eurozone crisis as the highest risk, lending credence to the notion that prime locations have benefited from their'safe haven' status and continue to attract investment despite sovereign debt concerns and geopolitical uncertainty.

However, even at the premium end of the market, a lack of available credit, diminishing employment markets, and low consumer confidence in the region could dampen demand.

Interest rates, high inflation, poor family income growth, and the implementation of large-scale housebuilding initiatives are all considered low risks by Knight Frank for the majority of locations.

Aside from the basic risks discussed above, there are a slew of other factors that could alter demand and supply patterns in the world's top markets, including currency fluctuations, tax changes, and revisions to planning laws. However, the fundamentals are unlikely to change; luxury housing supply is limited in most locations, and worldwide demand is increasing at an exponential rate.