Most expensive shopping street: Milan beats London and New York

MILAN'S Via Monte Napoleone has for the first time beaten New York and London to be the world's most expensive shopping street, as the Italian city benefits from an influx of affluent tourists and fierce competition for prime real estate among luxury brands.

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Top rents that landlords can charge luxury retailers on the street have jumped 11% in a year to 20,000 a square metre annually, the highest headline rent for shops in any of the 138 global retail destinations tracked by real estate group Cushman and Wakefield.It is the first European city to top the list in 34 years.

Milan has seen an influx of high spending tourists as well as a wave of relocations from abroad as professionals and the super-rich have been lured by generous tax break schemes.

Meanwhile, luxury retailers have stepped up competition for the most desirable destinations - paying top dollar to buy or rent retail spaces.