Surging property prices in China led to an increase in Asian billionaires, who now outnumber their American counterparts for the first time.
The number of Asian billionaires rose by one-quarter last year to 637, compared to 563 billionaires in the U.S. and 341 billionaires in Europe, according to a report by Swiss bank UBS and international consulting firm PwC. The U.S., however, still has the largest concentration of billionaire wealth, totaling $2.8 trillion.
In 2016, Asia added a new billionaire about every other day and total wealth increased by one-third to about $2 trillion from $1.5 trillion, the report found. If the current trend continues, Asian billionaire wealth will surpass U.S. wealth in the next four years.
Significant Wealth Shift
The majority of the new billionaires are from the continent’s two biggest economies, China and India. Their wealth is fueled by the rebound in commodity prices and skyrocketing Chinese housing prices, according to the report.
The study focuses on 1,542 billionaires across 14 largest wealth markets, which account for around 80 percent of the billionaire wealth globally. In Asia, there are 637 billionaires with 162 new entrants. China leads the pack with 101 new billionaires. Billionaire wealth in other key Asian markets – Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan) – grew by almost 30 percent.
«This year we have seen not only a return to growth for billionaire wealth, but also a significant shift in its geographic dimensions,» said Josef Stadler, UBS' head of ultra-high net worth clients.
