By opening a Louis Vuitton shop in the coastal village that is home to New York's wealthiest residents, LVMH and its CEO have driven up the real estate values so much that luxury boutiques and restaurants are struggling to find sales staff due to a lack of affordable housing.
The village of East Hampton, the summer retreat of New York's richest denizens, has for several years been at the centre of a property battle worth tens of millions of dollars. Commercial rents there now exceed those on Fifth Avenue and in Milan, Paris, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. The average price per square foot of commercial property there is around $1,348. Since 2023, Louis Vuitton has been running a permanent – though seasonal – boutique there, in a property personally owned by Bernard Arnault
