Milan now boasts most expensive shopping Street

If the names Fendi, Dior, and Valentino were rubbed from the shopfronts, Milan's Via Monte Napoleone could pass for a slightly fancier than average street in the northern Italian style capital, with the typical jostle of vans and Vespas alongside Porsches, tourists, and Milanese locals.

- Ellie Violet Bramley

But the 350-meter-long road has just been named the world's most expensive shopping street, beating New Bond Street in London, Fifth Avenue in New York, and the Champs-Élysées in Paris for the first time.

According to the latest Main Streets Across the World report, which is the work of the property group Cushman & Wakefield, the change "reflects robust rental growth on the Italian street, exceeding 30% in the last two years, further bolstered this year by the euro's appreciation against the US dollar."

Rent on the street, which ranked second last year behind Fifth Avenue, can reach €20,000 (£16,600) a square meter annually, and business is booming: in Europe's biggest property deal for two years, luxury conglomerate Kering, which owns Gucci, bought a prime spot on the street this year.

Rents on Fifth Avenue, by comparison, can hit £16,200 a square meter annually, but growth has plateaued.

Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong came in fourth.