Milan’s Via Monte Napoleone becomes world’s most expensive shopping street

Rental grown and euro’s strength against dollar help a European street to top list for first time in 34 years

If the names Fendi, Dior and Valentino were rubbed from the shop fronts, 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 residents.

But the 350 metre-long street has just been named the world’s most expensive shopping street, beating New York’s Fifth Avenue, London’s New Bond Street and Paris’s Champs-Élysées, and becoming the first European city to top the list in 34 years.