Eric Rosa Real Estate

Move over, New York. Beijing is the world's new billionaire capital

By Jonathan Kaiman Contact Reporter Asia China Alibaba Group

China boasts plenty of superlatives: It has the world’s most people, its biggest urban areas and some of its worst air pollution.

Now it has another claim to fame: more billionaires than any other country, according to the newly released Hurun Global Rich List 2016, a respected index of the world’s wealthiest people. Moreover, Beijing, according to the list, has displaced New York as the “billionaire capital of the world,” with 100 billionaires compared with the Big Apple’s 95. Hong Kong, with 64 billionaires, and Shanghai, with 50, also placed in the top five.

After New York, the only U.S. cities in the top 20 were San Francisco, the 12th-ranked city with 28 billionaires, and Los Angeles, No. 19, with 21.

According to the list, released on Wednesday, China is home to 568 billionaires, up 80% since 2013 and surpassing the United States (which has 535) for the first time, despite unprecedented levels of capital flight, a slowing economy and a stock crisis that saw the country’s equity markets plunge by 40% since last summer.

Unlike the U.S. cities, Beijing’s billionaires are all Chinese, Hurun’s founder, Rupert Hoogewerf, said in a phone interview. New York, he said, is “much more international. ... But in terms of super-wealth created, China has been coming up a lot in the past two years, and this is sort of the icing on the cake for it.”

Note - Will this Chinese capital formation result in continued investment in US assets including residential real estate (Arcadia Residential real Estate?) - Eric Rosa  Realtor