The housing market simply can’t keep up with the demand from a very specific part of the market…people who seek houses worth $100 million or more. Sales of houses with nine-figure price tags have reached an all-time high of…well, five of them sold last year, but there are many more on the market or being sold away from the general real estate market, and the fabulous-homes-for-billionaires market will just keep growing.

Not that the lovely people at Christie’s International Real Estate are objective observers of the high-end real estate market. However, looking at the very highest end of the real estate market does give us some interesting insights into global trends. First is the fact that billionaires see giant houses as an investment. “It’s something they’ll hold onto for a lifetime,” the CEO of Christie’s Real Estate told Bloomberg News, “the same way they’ll hold onto a Picasso or a Warhol or any number of the great pieces of art we’ve sold over the years.” You can put a painting inside your house, but you can’t live inside a painting.

Some of these mega-homes aren’t really “homes” for their owners, anyway: they’re a place to park money. It was just three years ago that uber-rich people from mainland China were first allowed to buy houses abroad, and many of the nine-figure residences on the market have sold to them.

Good news for people with more modest means, though: in the world’s wealthiest areas, the experts say that luxury homes usually only start at around $2 million.

Sales of $100 Million Homes Rise to Record Worldwide [Bloomberg News]

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