1 Avenue Princess Grace, Monaco (£9,650 per sq ft)

The beach it runs alongside is uncomfortably pebbly, and you can’t be sure of getting a sea view from an apartment there - but owning a home on Monaco’s Avenue Princess Grace means you are living at possibly the world’s most exclusive address. The palm-lined road, named after Grace Kelly, wife of Prince Rainier III, has topped a report on the world’s most expensive streets published earlier this month by the Wealth Bulletin, with a sample property price of £9,650 per sq ft. Flats in the principality’s premier street can change hands for £22m.

While many parts of the world are seeing plummeting property prices, it seems the super-rich just want to keep on buying. So where are the nine runner-up streets that are also paved with gold? Who lives there? And what exactly can you get for your money?

2 Severn Road, Hong Kong (£6,090 per sq ft )

Victoria Peak, on Hong Kong island, is where China’s rich and powerful have their multi-million-pound digs with views of the harbour. No 23 Severn Road is among the most expensive in the world (valued at about £70m in 1997); most recently, a billionaire from mainland China bought a 3,358-sq-ft flat on the street for a reported £20.7m.

3 Fifth Avenue, New York (£4,080 per sq ft)

With its historic mansions and elegant apartments, the elite reaches of the Upper East Side are still where the rich want to be: the actress Jessica Lange and the singer Diana Ross are residents. “Most buildings here are coops – you own shares and are given a lease - so they are very selective,” says Roger Erickson, senior managing director at Sotheby’s International Realty in the city. “It’s like a small club.” At 857 Fifth Avenue, a three-bedroom, 3,900-sq-ft flat with views over Central Park, is for sale for £10.6m (00 1 212 606 7660, www.sothebyshomes.com).

4 Kensington Palace Gardens, London (£3,910 per sq ft)

“It is the most sought-after street in London,” says Tim Wright, a partner at Knight Frank’s Kensington office, who has a waiting list of 20 people – mainly from Russia, India and the Middle East – desperate to buy. “It’s owned by the Crown estate, there are security gates at either end, and the houses are large and detached.” The road is home to the world’s wealthiest: four years ago, Lakshmi Mittal, Britain’s richest man, paid £57m for the Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone’s 12-bedroom mansion, and set a new record earlier this year when he bought two more on “billionaires’ row”, for £117m and £70m.

5 Avenue Montaigne, Paris (£2,740 per sq ft)

Catch Kylie shopping on Paris’s fashion boulevard, in the 8th arrondissement, with its haute-couture boutiques and perfumeries. On the Rue du Boccador, just off the street, a two-bed, 1,940-sq-ft flat is for sale for £3.4m (0845 224 3658, www.quintessentiallyestates.com).

6 Ostozhenka, Moscow (£2,030 per sq ft)In Russia’s equivalent to Belgravia, prices have risen by 50% in the past year. Many flats, in classically styled buildings, have views of the Kremlin – this is strictly oligarch territory. To buy in, a 1,720-sq-ft flat on the street is for sale with Knight Frank (00 7 495 981 0000, www.knightfrank.ru) for £3.3m.

7 Via Suvretta, St Mortiz (£1,930 per sq ft) On the winding Via Suvretta, just out of the main town, “only a few properties per year are exchanged”, says Paul Side-bottom, director of Alpine Switzerland, “and even old chalets that need to be rebuilt command prices of up to £40m”. The Italian prime minister, Silvio Ber-lusconi, has a home. Six-bedroom Villa Cuvel d’Aivla, on the Via Marguns, adjoining Via Suvretta, is for sale for £12.3m with Swiss Property Sales (0114 236 3655, www.swissproperty.co.uk).

8 Carolwood Drive, Beverly Hills (£1,520 per sq ft)

Stars of the silver screen, including Gregory Peck and Marilyn Monroe, have owned homes here, among some of the most sumptuous mansions in California. At No 350, Fleur de Lys, a 12-bedroom mansion modelled on Versailles, is for sale for £68m (00 1 310 285 7529, www.joycerey.com).

9 Wolseley Road, Sydney (£1,420 per sq ft) Homes on Wolseley Road, on the Point Piper peninsula, have an average price of £5.75m. Earlier this year, Craig-y-Mor, which has views of the Opera House, became Australia’s most expensive residential property when it sold for a reported £17.6m. The three-bed No 97 Wolseley Road, with spectacular harbour views, is for sale for £7.6m with Richardson & Wrench (00 61 2 9327 5825, www.rwdoublebay.com.au).

10 Altamount Road, Mumbai (£1,270 per sq ft)

In India’s financial capital, this street, once dotted with colonial-style bungalows, is now defined by skyscrapers. The country’s movers and shakers, including Bollywood stars, live here, and India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is building a £1 billion, 27-floor block. The price per sq ft seems absurd when you think of the millions of people living below the poverty line – but it’s still cheaper than a top-end Hampstead property.

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