The ranks of Chinese with assets of more than $30 million (excluding their primary homes) will grow by 80 percent in the next decade, making China 13th among all countries and regions in terms of multi-millionaires, according to a report released by international property consultancy Knight Frank on Monday.
The growth in China’s super-rich over the coming decade means that by 2023 the country will have 14,213 of these ultra-wealthy comrades, and this group of ultra-rich should make, Beijing and Shanghai two of the most popular locations for high-end real estate investment by 2023, if the predictions in The Wealth Report 2014 are accurate.
In 2024, Shanghai would rank fourth and Beijing sixth, just behind third-ranked Hong Kong, as the most important cities in the world’s ultra-rich community in 2024, according to the report. In 2014, Hong Kong ranks fourth, Shanghai sixth and Beijing ninth.
“The Chinese mainland will have a growing presence on the list. And Hong Kong will enjoy the advantage of being the unofficial bridge that connects the Chinese mainland and the rest of the world in the next decade,” Thomas Lam, head of research and consultancy for Knight Frank in China, said at a press conference Monday.
The surge of China’s ultra-wealthy population has made Beijing and Shanghai the key markets for high-end residential properties and pushed up home prices, the report said. The price of prime residential units in Beijing, for example, soared by 17 percent to reach $17,100 per square meter in 2013, compared with a modest 2.3 percent growth in 2012.
Nicolas Holt, Knight Frank’s head of Asia-Pacific research, said that buyers of China’s luxury homes, mostly in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong Province, usually pay the majority of their new homes in cash.
“In such an equity-driven market, the demand and prices of high-end residential units will continue to grow,” Holt said.
And the demand for property among China gilded classes has expanded to overseas markets, Knight Frank executives noted.
According to Holt, China contributed 30 percent of the overseas investment into Australia last year, and 13 percent of the inbound investment into the US housing market in 2013.
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