Knight Frank launches The Wealth Report 2015

·       Asia sees highest growth rate in super-rich populations in 2014;

·       Asia’s UHNWI population to overtake that of North America in the next 10 years;

·       Concentration of wealth remains in Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, London and Mumbai over the next decade

 

12 March 2015, Malaysia – Knight Frank, the independent global property consultancy, today launches the ninth edition of The Wealth Report 2015. The report tracks the growing super-rich population in 108 cities across 97 countries.

 

In 2014, around 15 people a day joined the ranks of the ultra-wealthy, or those with a net worth of over US$30m. This growth is set to continue in the coming decade, with the global population of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) forecast to climb by 34% to a total of almost 231,000.

Around the world in 2014, Asia saw the largest rise in its wealth population compared to other regions across all wealth brackets:

Wealth bracket	Percentage change (2013 – 2014)	Population 2014	Population 2024
HNWI	3.3%	5,094,277	7,373,427
UHNWI	3.5%	42,272	62,399
Centa-millionaire	4.0%	9,094	14,263
Billionaire	4.2%	492	834

Most notably on a regional level in 2014, Asia overtook North America as the region with the second-largest increase in UHNWIs – some 1,419 people moved past the $30m+ mark in Asia in 2014, after an increase of fewer than 1,000 in 2013. Standing strong, Europe held onto the top spot with the most new entrants of 1,834 people joining the UHNWI bracket over 2014.

 

The ultra-wealthy in Asia now also hold more in total wealth with net assets of $5.9tn – 7% more than those in North America with $5.5tn. However, with a $6.4tn treasure chest, European UHNWIs still control the most wealth.  Come 2024, Asia will overtake North America in UHNWI population by 11%.

 

Mr Liam Bailey, Global Head of Research at Knight Frank, says, “The most rapid growth in wealth will be seen in the likes of Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Mumbai, and Delhi.  One fifth of the 100 global cities assessed in The Wealth Report are expected to see greater than 100% growth over the next decade, all of which are in Asia or Africa.

 

“The geographic concentration of wealth remains a key trend – with 10% of all additional growth in UHNWIs taking place in just five cities – Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, London and Mumbai over the next decade.” 

Cities with greatest forecast 10-year UHNWI growth (2014-2024)

Ranking	City	Extra UHNWIs	Ranking	City	Extra UHNWIs
1	Singapore	1,752	6	Beijing	848
2	Hong Kong	1,251	7	Shanghai	687
3	New York	1,013	8	São Paulo	621
4	London	907	9	Hangzhou	616
5	Mumbai	871	10	Jakarta	538

 Five-year prime residential price growth (Q4 2009 to Q4 2014)

Mr Nicholas Holt, Head of Research for Asia Pacific, says, “The rise of Asia and its subsequent impact on prime property within the region and beyond has been one of the key narratives highlighted in The Wealth Report. This growth in wealth is certainly impacting prime residential markets across Asia and Australasia, with the region’s key cities and second home destinations seeing strong price growth over the last five years. This is despite interventions by policy makers in a number of markets, designed to slow price growth and curb foreign ownership.

“Over the past nine years, the hunger for knowledge has only increased, especially from our clients here in Asia Pacific, where UHNW property investors are becoming increasingly confident and are looking to diversify their property portfolios by exploring new asset classes and locations.”

Mr Sarkunan Subramaniam, Managing Director at Knight Frank Malaysia, says, "As the Ringgit slides, more Malaysian HNWIs will hedge to maintain their wealth by investing overseas. The current economic climate will further see Malaysian capital moving towards safe havens such as London, New York and Melbourne. We are also noticing Malaysians taking bigger interest in US real estate compared to a few years ago."

Ms Eunice Chan, Head of HNW & Affluent Banking, Community Financial Services, Maybank says, "Since the launch of the Maybank Overseas Mortgage Loan scheme in 2011 and the Foreign Currency Offshore Property Financing-i for properties in the United Kingdom in 2014, Maybank has seen tremendous growth in overseas loan applications. We have recorded around 600 million worth of related mortgage financing mainly for properties purchased in London, the most popular destination for the HNWI. Despite the moderation of growth in Asia, the demand by HNWIs for prime property overseas remains resilient, and is one of the key investment avenues for this segment."  

Mr Alvin Lee, Head of Regional Private Wealth, Maybank, says, “The Bank is committed to supporting the demand for prime property among wealthy individuals in Malaysia and in the Asian region.”

We have seen an impressive growth in the number of customers in HNW and affluent banking which had increased by 10.4% in 2014 compared with 2013. We are expecting our HNW base to grow by a further 12% this year with Total Financial Assets of RM12 billion. This is in line with the growing number of Asia’s super-rich population which recorded US$5.9 trillion in net assets in 2014. With a presence in all 10 ASEAN countries, Maybank has the capability and infrastructure in place to service local clients as well as to clients based offshore."

 

Key highlights: UHNWI population (defined as those with a net worth of US$30m or more)

On a country level

·         Out of the 15 locations with UHNWI population growth of 5% or above in 2014, six are in Asia (including Central Asia).

 “Despite the headwinds facing the global economy as a result of renewed political tensions and fiscal uncertainty in 2014, some countries experienced particularly strong wealth creation last year, with UHNWI populations expanding by 5% or more in 15 countries,” explains Bailey. “Twelve of these countries were emerging economies underlining the fact that despite concerns about the easing of the pace of growth in developing countries, they are still going to be key drivers of wealth creation.” 

Locations with UHNWI population growth of 5% or above in 2014

Ranking	Location	Population growth	Ranking	Location	Population growth
1	Monaco	9.6%	8	Iran	5.5%
2	Zambia	6.7%	9	Vietnam	5.5%
3	Mongolia	6.7%	10	UAE	5.3%
4	Namibia	6.3%	11	Panama	5.1%
5	Kazakhstan	6.2%	12	Hong Kong	5.1%
6	China	5.8%	13	Uganda	5.0%
7	Uruguay	5.6%	14	Nigeria	5.0%
			15	Myanmar	5.0%

Source: The Wealth Report 2015, Page 18

·         10 years from now, in terms of absolute number of UHNWIs:

o   The USA and Japan will still remain top of the list.

o   China (2014 ranking: 5th position)  will overtake Germany (2014 ranking: 3rd position)  and the UK (2014 ranking: 4th position)

o   Singapore (2014 ranking: 13^th position) will overtake that of France (2014 ranking: 9^th position)

 UHNWI population growth 2014-2024

2014 Ranking	Country	UHNWI Population 2014	2024 Ranking	Country	UHNWI Population 2024	% Change (2014 – 2024)
1	USA	40,581	1	USA	50,767	25.1%
2	Japan	16,703	2	Japan	19,916	19.2%
3	Germany	11,679	3	China	15,681	87.4%
4	UK	10,547	4	Germany	14,481	24.0%
5	China	8,366	5	UK	13,176	24.9%
6	Canada	4,341	6	Brazil	6,278	48.8%
7	Switzerland	4,328	7	Canada	5,392	24.2%
8	Brazil	4,218	8	Switzerland	5,295	22.3%
9	France	3,865	9	Singapore	4,979	54.3%
10	Italy	3,717	10	Italy	4,468	20.2%

Source: The Wealth Report 2015, Pages 20, 66-67

On a city level

·         As of 2014 in terms of absolute number of UHNWIs, eight of the top 20 cities in the world are in Asia, half of which are in Greater China.

·         Over the next 10 years, the top 15 cities in terms of percentage growth of UHNWI population are in Asia, dominated by Indian and Chinese cities and led by Ho Chi Minh City.

·         Asia has three cities – Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong – in the top five destinations where the super wealthy live.  London is currently host to more than double the number of UHNWIs with 4,364 more than its nearest European rival, Frankfurt, which is home to only 1,909. 

Where do the wealthy really live?

Ranking	City	Region	Current UHNWI population
1	London	Europe	4,364
2	Tokyo	Asia	3,575
3	Singapore	Asia	3,227
4	New York	North America	3,008
5	Hong Kong	Asia	2,690
6	Frankfurt	Europe	1,909
7	Paris	Europe	1,521
8	Osaka	Asia	1,471
9	Beijing	Asia	1,408

Source: The Wealth Report 2015, Pages 30-31

Key highlights: Billionaire population

On a country level

·         Globally, 830 people have joined the ranks of the billionaire club in the past decade, with 53 individuals becoming billionaires in 2014 alone.  The total number of billionaires in the world now numbers 1,844, which is an 82% increase from ten years ago. 

·         In terms of absolute number of billionaires, China is currently behind the USA in second position.  In 10 years’ time, China will see 154 billionaires joining the ranks – the largest number in the world.

On a city level

·         As of 2014 in terms of absolute number of billionaires, 10 of the top 20 cities in the world are in Asia

Billionaire population in 2014

Ranking	City	Number of Billionaires	Ranking	City	Number of Billionaires
1	New York	114	11	Tokyo	22
2	Moscow	91	12	Paris	21
3	Hong Kong	53	13	Seoul	21
4	London	49	14	Los Angeles	20
5	Beijing	37	15	Shenzhen	19
6	Mumbai	30	16	Chicago	18
7	Istanbul	29	17	Jakarta	18
8	São Paulo	25	18	Washington DC	18
9	Singapore	24	19	San Francisco	17
10	Taipei	22	20	Shanghai	17

Source: The Wealth Report 2015, Pages 66-67

·         Over the next 10 years, Chinese cities will comprise two-thirds of the top 30 cities, in terms of the percentage growth in billionaires.

Billionaire population growth 2014-2024

Ranking	City	10-year growth	Ranking	City	10-year growth
1	Jakarta	138.9%	16	Suzhou	100.0%
2	Bangalore	114.3%	17	Wenzhou	100.0%
3	Mumbai	110.0%	18	Xiamen	100.0%
4	Delhi	109.1%	19	Dalian	100.0%
5	Lagos	100.0%	20	Dongguan	100.0%
6	Buenos Aires	100.0%	21	Ningbo	100.0%
7	Ahmedabad	100.0%	22	Taizhou, Zhejiang	100.0%
8	Foshan	100.0%	23	Wuhan	100.0%
9	Fuzhou	100.0%	24	Shanghai	94.1%
10	Tianjin	100.0%	25	Beijing	91.9%
11	Changsha	100.0%	26	Hangzhou	91.7%
12	Chengdu	100.0%	27	Monaco	91.7%
13	Chennai	100.0%	28	Guangzhou	90.9%
14	Chongqing	100.0%	29	Shenzhen	89.5%
15	Nanjing	100.0%	30	Kiev	75.0%

Source: The Wealth Report 2015, Pages 66-67

END

Notes to editors:

·         Centa-millionaires: Defined as someone with a net worth of US$100m or more, excluding their principle residence.

·         UHNWI: Defined as someone with a net worth of US$30m or more, excluding their principle residence.

·         HNWI: Defined as someone with a net worth of US$1m or more, excluding their principle residence.

To download the report, please visit:

http://www.knightfrank.com/wealthreport

For further information, please contact:

From Knight Frank

Mr Nicholas Holt, Head of Research, Asia Pacific

nicholas.holt@asia.knightfrank.com +65 6429 3595 @nholtKF

Ms Rachel Loke, Head of Public Relations & Communications, Asia Pacific

rachel.loke@asia.knightfrank.com +65 6429 3587 @knightfrank

Ms Pamela Phua, Asst. Marketing Manager, Malaysia

pamela.phua@my.knightfrank.com  +603 2289 9669 @KnightFrank_my

From Maybank

Mr Nicholas Chan, Events & Communications, HNW & Affluent Banking

nicholas.chan@maybank.com.my +603 2070 8833 Ext 5143

About Knight Frank

Knight Frank LLP is the leading independent global property consultancy. Headquartered in London, Knight Frank, together with its US alliance partner, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, operate from 370 offices, in 55 countries, across six continents and has over 12,000 employees. The Group advises clients ranging from individual owners and buyers to major developers, investors and corporate tenants. For further information about the Company, please visit www.knightfrank.com.

Maybank – Humanising Financial Services

Maybank is among Asia's leading banking groups and South East Asia’s fourth largest bank by assets. It has been ranked among the World's Top 20 Strongest Banks by Bloomberg Markets for two consecutive years - 2013 and 2014. The Maybank Group has an international network of 2,400 offices in 20 countries namely Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong SAR & People's Republic of China, Bahrain, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Laos, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain and the United States of America.  The Group offers an extensive range of products and services, which includes consumer and corporate banking, investment banking, Islamic banking, stock broking, insurance and takaful and asset management. It has over 47,000 employees serving more than 22 million customers worldwide. For more information about Maybank, please visit www.maybank.com.