Global vision: the best places to buy a second home

How does the timeless beauty of the Côte d’Azur measure up against a Tuscan vineyard as the ideal spot for a second home? Would you prefer to spend your leisure time in a golden-stone house in the Cotswolds or surrounded by orange groves in Mallorca? All these places feature in the top tier of the newly released Savills World Second Home Locations Index, the company’s first in-depth comparison of the most desirable destinations around the globe.

“Our focus was to look at the factors that make a successful prime second-home location and consider how the best destinations retain their longevity,” says Kelcie Sellers, from the Savills World Research team. “We analysed 60 places worldwide, from well-established favourites to newer locations such as Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah, built on land reclaimed from the sea. By measuring five broad categories – prime residential prices, the leisure and lifestyle offering, the quality of hotels and hospitality, connectivity and global reach – we arrived at an index that shows which locations truly stand out as world-class destinations for holiday and second homes.”

At the top of the list is the Côte d’Azur, a destination that found favour with English visitors in the 19th century, when aristocrats chose to winter there. Their legacy lives on: stroll along the waterfront Promenade des Anglais in Nice, the “Walkway of the English”, and you’ll be following in the footsteps of distinguished visitors such as Queen Victoria.

“The Côte d’Azur has retained its stellar status for holiday- and second-home buyers since Victorian days,” says Jelena Cvjetkovic, director of Savills Global Residential Network. “Its wonderful natural landscapes, both on the coast and in the hinterlands, its varied high-end lifestyle offerings, its annual international events – Formula 1 and film festivals – and its old-school glamour give people reasons to come again and again. Buyers appreciate the wide range of property on offer and the beautiful French architecture.”

In Monaco, prime property prices fell by 2% in the year to June 2023, yet they remain the highest in all 60 of the locations on the index – and this, coupled with good connectivity and easy access via Nice airport, secured the principality second place on the list. Aspen came in third, while fourth and fifth, respectively, were the central Italian region of Tuscany, where prime property prices are relatively low, and the Balearic island of Mallorca, off the east coast of Spain, where prime prices rose by 15% in the year to June 2023.

“Tuscany, Mallorca and the French Riviera are all easy to access through international airports and their names confer internationally recognised prestige,” says Cvjetkovic. “Looking at Tuscany, the appeal, for me, is the variety. It’s one of the largest areas included in the index and offers distinctly different areas – prime Chianti and the Val d’Orcia, the mountains above Lucca and the hills in the wine estates of southern Tuscany. Coastal resorts, often overlooked in the region, include Viareggio, Forte dei Marmi and Porto Santo Stefano. You can find golf resorts too.”

The highest-ranked UK location in the index, in seventh place, is the Cotswolds, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that also benefits from a wide variety of attractions. The region saw a 2% increase in prime prices in the year to June 2023, and local Savills agents report that prospective buyers outnumber available properties by three to one.

“The Cotswolds has a pocket or community for everyone, from Londoners seeking the peace of the countryside, but wanting to maintain access to international members’ clubs and excellent connectivity, to families looking for outstanding schools and greater space,” says Charles Elsmore-Wickens, Savills head of the Cotswolds.

Read the Savills World Second Home Locations Index in full. 

Pictures from top: World Second Home Locations illustration (Supermassive Creative); Palm Jumeriah, Dubai; View of the colourful old town facades above the Mediterranean Sea in Menton on french Riviera, France on a sunny day; Scenic Tuscany landscape panorama with rolling hills and harvest fields in golden morning light, Val d’Orcia, Italy; Clear blue summer sky over gently rolling patchwork farmland with pretty wooded boundaries, in the beautiful surroundings of the Cotswolds, England, UK