Our Family Office Survey 2026 results: leverage and legacy

Family offices wield growing investment power. Our 2026 survey reveals shifting strategies, rising ambitions, and the forces reshaping this opaque yet critical financial sector.

23 April 2026

2 mins read

Our Family Office Survey 2026 results: leverage and legacy

Family offices have rapidly become a standard requirement for today’s ultra-wealthy.

This year’s Knight Frank Family Office Survey draws from exclusive interviews with more than 40 family offices, spanning London, New York, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and beyond.

The survey explores wealth migration, generational strategy clashes, the hunt for excess return investments, and the emerging disruption in wealth management beyond traditional private banking.

The rise of the modern family office is a story about the extraordinary expansion of global wealth. Yet while the sector is growing rapidly, it remains remarkably diverse in approach and operation.

Signs of a shift towards structure for family offices

Despite this diversity, we’re seeing a general shift towards a more structured approach.

Portfolios increasingly focus on explicit targets, formal processes, and analysis-based decisions. Several trends illustrate this shift:

Growing collaboration: Co-investment allows for shared risk and access to larger opportunities.
Professionalisation: Many offices now employ internal specialists in private equity, venture capital, and real estate.
Diversification: Portfolios tend to combine liquid assets with private equity, venture capital, infrastructure, and direct property investments.

Disruption and mobility: where is wealth going?

Wealthy families are increasingly establishing multiple bases to access deals, networks, and talent. London and New York remain important centres, but newer hubs such as Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore are gaining momentum.

Technology, data platforms, and improved deal-sourcing tools are enabling institutions to analyse vast numbers of investment opportunities and deliver them to clients more efficiently.

Agility could become the biggest advantage. Single family offices may become the most resilient as flexibility, speed of decision-making, and alignment with a single capital base allow them to adapt quickly to new opportunities.

Five key themes from the 2026 Family Office Survey

From real estate to frictionless wealth, we dive into five areas of focus emerging from this year's survey.

Direct ownership remains attractive, allowing families to shape development strategies, manage risk, and capture the full upside rather than sharing returns through fund structures.

Operational real estate sectors have emerged as attractive opportunities for family offices. Data centres, student accommodation, healthcare, logistics and the like combine stable income with long-term growth potential.

There is a massive opportunity to look for value-add projects. Construction everywhere has struggled due to high build costs, so there is a real lack of best-in-class product across Europe.

Interviews highlighted the need for disruption in wealth management. Private banks are constrained by post-2008 regulations, leaving a gap for family offices that require complex leverage, direct private deals, and high-yield strategies.

You’ve got a rising generation who want instant access to all their investments. They want to be able to view the trades in real time, on a daily basis live with currency overlay.

London emerges as a city under pressure. Sentiment is more cautious than a decade ago, yet few believe London’s importance will disappear. The city’s deep financial ecosystem, global connectivity, and time zone advantages remain powerful anchors in an era of mobility.

There is a growing preference for lighter, more flexible structures, reflecting a broader shift in ultra-wealthy lifestyles towards convenience and immediacy. Some family offices are applying this internally: keeping structures lean while tapping external expertise when opportunities arise.