I wanted to understand where best to live in the city and also how high up. Given the nature of property development and importance of views verticality is critical. But strategically where should you position your apartment? Is it a numbers game like odds and evens, should you aim for the top or simply focus on the direction of the sun and the best views?

Knight Frank is well positioned, as the world’s largest privately-owned real estate agency to comment on where to live. We transact some of the most iconic and beautiful properties in the residential and commercial world, so we understand people and property. What I am looking for is to see if there are important trends occurring in other major cities and why.

One of the key messages in this report is that people are choosing to live and work in the same busy communities. Reducing travel time is a key priority.

If you want to pick one city to understand property then, for me it has to be New York with London next in line. Both are the leading international cities which attract the big business, state of the art property development and the highest paid jobs. Knight Frank rates these cities as 1 and 2 most important global cities in its annual Wealth Report. One of the key messages in this report is that people are choosing to live and work in the same busy communities. Reducing travel time is a key priority.

Before specifying our expert views we can see that there have been significant changes in our global cities. The most notable is that they are getting bigger. The cause of this is twofold, the jobs are prevalent, and workers are demanding shorter travel periods. As a result, the distances between home and work are getting shorter. Instead of an hour being acceptable as it used to be, it is 30 minutes. Accommodation is therefore more expensive due to density and smaller due to affordability. Homes are of course, apartments and many are offering valuable shared amenities within the building or close by. Never before has community been so important with increased living pressures.

Knight Frank’s residential partners in the US are Douglas Elliman. I approached Senior Vice President, Richard Jordan. I visit Richard each year. He is Head of Global Markets. I wanted to know where in Manhattan he would choose to live? In exchange I wanted to share my thoughts as a native of Sydney.

Here is what we think:

Richard Jordan