Milan pips New York to claim world’s most expensive shopping street

New York’s Fifth Avenue, the Champs-Élysées in Paris and London’s New Bond Street may be the world’s most famous luxury shopping locations. The most expensive, however, has just been announced as a thoroughfare in Milan — the first European city to take the title in 34 years.

Shops on Via Montenapoleone, the street where Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci and Prada all have stores, are being rented for an annual rate of up to €20,000 (£17,000) per square metre, an 11 per cent jump from last year. Tax breaks, assiduous marketing and Brexit have helped Italy’s finance centre steal the top spot from New York, where the most expensive spaces on Upper Fifth Avenue cost just €19,537 per square metre.

Good news for the city it