When it comes to billionaires, Asia is by no means lagging behind the world. A report was done where it was said that Asian billionaires will rise by 27% between the period of 2018 and 2023. Most of those, according to Livemint, will come from India. The country leads the world with a whopping 39% surge, followed only by the Philippines and China.
This is despite the tension in the region, brought about by the costly China-US trade dispute. According to analysts, the Asian region will see 1,003 new billionaires between the said years, putting a third of the world's billionaires in the region. So far, the global billionaire count is up to 2,696, per a report by Knight Frank LLP.
Making up the entirety of that billionaire population in North America and Europe, with 17 and 18 percent of that population residing there, respectively. Asia is also on route to provide the biggest increase ever seen in ultra-high net worth people, or people having net assets of $30 million or more. India holds the highly-coveted status of leader of the pack.
It isn't surprising that India leads the pack in creating new billionaires, as most of the world's richest real estate moguls have not come from North America and Europe alone. In fact, The Real Deal revealed that New Yorker Stephen Ross is only 191st on that list. The five highest ranking real estate magnates have come from Asia.
They come from either China or its territory Hong Kong. Within the top 50 are two real estate moguls from Asia--Evergrande Group's Hui Ka Yan is at 22 with a net worth of $36 billion, while Dalian Wanda's chairman, Wang Jianlin, holds number 36 on that list with a net worth of $22.6 billion.
Donal Bren is the richest property mogul in America, and even then, he sits at 68th with a net worth of $16.4 billion. He is behind Irvine Company, a firm with hundreds of commercial properties and around 60,000 residential apartments.
Nicholas Holt, head of research at Knight Frank Asia Pacific, said that the gradual move is borne of a series of 're-balancing.' He said that, with each country's economy shifting, companies and individuals are also diversifying a portfolio. The result is a move toward investment-grade property rather than cash, gold, and private equity.
