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Super-rich property buyers get a lot wealthier
Here is further proof that there are two species of people: the super-rich and the rest of us.
A new report, the Ultra Prime Barometer, produced by London agent Beauchamp Estates, has come up with uplifting news for the former, but which frankly makes the rest of us feel like crushed failures with an over-reliance on money-saving offers at supermarkets.
The super-rich have just got an awful lot richer.
In fact, they are able to shrug off the fact that the cost of a private yacht has gone up by 6.5% in the last year or that Stamp Duty Land Tax changes on a London mansion have risen, because the overall wealth of billionaires has shot up 11.9% in the last year.
The report says there are now 2,325 billionaires globally, with 775 living in Europe.
The average billionaire is 63, self-made and male, and spends £105m of their overall wealth on property.
The average billionaire has four homes in Europe which typically equate to a £21.4m mansion in London; an £18.2m holiday home on the French Riviera; a £10.5m Tuscany estate; and a £4.4m villa in the Greek islands.
London is Europe’s top billionaire hotspot, with 72 billionaires (worth £116bn) naming the UK capital as their primarily base, up from 67 at the time of the last Beauchamp Estates survey.
Over 70 other billionaires have a second or third home in London, bringing the total with London residences to over 140.
This is more than any other city in the world, ahead of New York on 103, Moscow on 85, Hong Kong on 82, Paris on 33, Geneva on 23 and Madrid on 21.
Of the 72 billionaires whose primary base is London, 53% were born outside the UK; 8% are female and 78% have self-made rather than inherited fortunes.
The survey reveals that entering billionaire territory in London now has a minimum entry level of £10m. Last year’s UK Stamp Duty changes mean that the average cost of purchasing a £10m home has resulted in purchase costs rising from 7.6% to 11.8% of the price, but this is still less than the 11.9% annual rise in billionaire wealth.
Beauchamp Estates’ boss Gary Hersham said: “The rise in billionaires is why currently there are now around half a dozen palatial private homes each providing over 30,000 sq ft of living space in the development pipeline across prime central London.
“London commentators often forget that in Russia, the Ukraine and Middle East, the homes of the super-rich are massive compared to traditional London homes.
“Palatial properties in places like the Ukraine, Qatar and Saudi Arabia can be up to 150,000 sq ft in size. So an 8,000 sq ft London townhouse is like a broom cupboard.”
Penelope Court, partner at Beauchamp Estates, said her firm typically advises ultra high net worth individuals to set aside £55m to buy the right property.
The firm predicts that the billionaire homes bonanza is set to continue: over the last five years the number of billionaires around the world has been growing at a rate of over 7% per annum, so by 2020, at the current rate of growth, there could potentially be over 3,870 billionaires around the world.
http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/super-rich-property-buyers-get-a-lot-wealthier/
