For instance in the UK if you bought the $4.1m London home on a 25 year, 3% mortgage, with a 25% deposit you'd pay about $170k per year. But after tax your $290k "top-1%" income would be about $185k -- only just enough to even cover your mortgage, forget about school fees.
I wonder what the London, NY, LA etc 1% numbers are? Surely that's a fairer comparison to e.g. Singapore anyway, since it's a city-state.
At least according to this site [0] (which references a 2013 report [1]) for instance, to be in the 1% in New York state you have to be making at least $517,557. However, the average annual income of those in the 1% is $2,006,632.
In Mississippi, though, you only have to be making $264,952 to be in the 1% and the average annual income of the 1% in MS is $565,813.
Of course, you have to consider cost of living and what not, but 1% is definitely not the same everywhere.
[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/12/how-much-you-have-to-earn-to...
[1] https://www.epi.org/publication/income-inequality-in-the-us/...