Luxury investments are outpacing the increases in gold

Luxury investments are outpacing the increases in gold and property prices, according to new research.

Wine has floated to the top of the list of 10 luxury investments, with corks popping as values improved by 25% over the year to the end of June 2017.

Most of the other assets tracked by investment consultants Knight Frank, returned a flat performance of between -3% for antique furniture and 4% for watches.

Besides wine, the only categories outside the that range were art, with a 7% increase, and Chinese ceramics with a 12% drop.

However, over a longer trend, cars sped away from the rest despite only returning a 2% rise last year.

Stellar cars

Over five years, the increase for classic cars geared up to an index-leading 117%, while over a decade, cars outshone any other investment on the index to rise in price by 362%.

Fine wine still put in a respectable second place performance of a 61% increase over five years and 231% over ten years.

Andrew Shirley, who compiles the index, said: “It has been an interesting year so far in the world of luxury investments, but one that is difficult to generalise about. While the most highly coveted objects of desire have performed strongly at auction, buyers remain circumspect when purchasing new assets for their collections.

“In terms of classic cars, for example, we have recently seen the most expensive Aston Martin ($22.5 million) and McLaren F1 ($15.6 million) go under the hammer, but other auction sales with less stellar cars have disappointed.

Mobile wealth store

“Jewellery continues to capture the imagination of wealthy collectors and is a genuine investment of passion – offering not only great pleasure to its owner, but also act as a highly mobile store of wealth.”

Besides fine wines and classic cars, the index tracks the price of jewellery, gem stones, stamps, coins and other collectibles.

Source: Knight Frank