Bernadette Joy, an angel investor worth $2m (£1.5m) bought her first home at the age of 28.

By 2019 she owned three properties and lived mortgage-free in a four-bedroom house in North Carolina.

But three years ago, Ms Joy, 40, and her husband sold their home for double what they paid for it — and began renting a one-bedroom flat for $1960-a-month in the centre of Charlotte.

Ms Joy is among a rising number of millionaires in the US who are choosing to rent, preferring the flexibility as well as the ability to invest the money that would be locked up in the property.

The number of renters with an income of more than one million tripled in the US from 4,512 in 2019 to 13,692 in 2023, according to RentCafe.

The highest number of renting millionaires are concentrated in New York, which more than doubled from 2,204 to 5,661 in the three year period.