The Duke of Westminster has been toppled in the Estates Gazette Rich List for the first time.
Top of this year’s list is China-based Wang Jianlin (pictured) of Dalian Wanda Group, which has bought One Nine Elms, part of London’s Vauxhall South Bank regeneration scheme, to build a new hotel and residential development. Jianlin is valued at £10.4bn with his stake in China’s leading developer of shopping centres and other assets, including Sunseeker Yachts.
Jianlin ends a more than 10-year reign by the Duke of Westminster, owner of London landed estate Grosvenor.
This year the duke falls from first to fourth in the list, as the weight of money from Asia starts to have an impact on the UK property scene.
New in second place is Henry Cheng Kar-Shun of Hong Kong-based Knight Dragon/New World Development Company.
He has a net worth of £10.3bn and made his debut in the UK with the purchase of the 300-acre Greenwich Peninsula, SE10, regeneration scheme from Quintain Estates & Development.
The Reuben brothers, who are valued at £8.3bn, took third place in this year’s Rich List, with £300m more in their bank than the Duke of Westminster.
The rapid influx of Asian money into the UK has driven a 60% rise in the total wealth of the richest investors in UK property to £162.5bn.
The Estates Gazette Rich List tracks the wealth of the top 250 investors in UK property.
This year’s rise is the fastest accumulation of private wealth on record.
“This is the largest increase this or any other rich list has ever achieved anywhere in the world in a year and that sums up the London property market,” said EG Rich List compiler Philip Beresford.
With 73 new entrants, compared with 21 in 2012, new money into the UK is clearly ousting established investors from the list.
Beresford said there was every reason to suppose that the world’s wealthiest private investors will continue to accumulate vast wealth from UK property in the years ahead.
“I think for the next few years [the growth] is sustainable because even though London prices seem insane to us, the capital is regarded as a safe haven for money,” he said.
“The returns can be good and the government is very pro-business and business-friendly.”
Beresford added: “We can become the outpost for China in Europe and when it floats its currency it will be done through London.”
Read the full Estates Gazette Rich List >>
| Rich List 2013 Top 10 | ||
|---|---|---|
| No | Name | Wealth (£m) |
| 1 | Wang Jianlin | 10,400 |
| 2 | Henry Cheng Kar-Shun & family | 10,270 |
| 3 | Reuben Brothers | 8,300 |
| 4 | Duke of Westminster | 8,000 |
| 5 | Ernesto & Kirsty Bertarelli & family | 7,400 |
| 6 | Petr Kellner | 6,800 |
| 7 | Joseph Lau | 4,600 |
| 8 | Frank Lowy & family | 3,900 |
| 9 | Sir Philip & Lady Green | 3,880 |
| 10 | Earl Cadogan & family | 3,725 |
