Vietnam’s number of ultra rich to grow 116% in 10 yrs: report
Sunday, April 06, 2014, 10:15 GMT+7
Vietnam tops the list of fastest growing UHNWI, or ultra high net worth individuals, populations by country in the next ten years, according to a report recently released by independent real estate consultancy Knight Frank.
A UHNWI is defined as someone with US$30m or more in net assets excluding their principle residence, Knight Frank said in its The Wealth Report 2014.
By this definition, in 2013 Vietnam had 110 UHNWIs, and the number is forecast to rise to 293 over the next decade, representing a 116 percent growth, highest among the countries assessed in the report.
It is followed by Indonesia, whose number of UHNWIs is expected to rise 144 percent in the 2013 – 2023 period.
Just as Vietnam tops the charts for UHNWI growth over the next decade, its largest urban centre, Ho Chi Minh City, is expected to head the cities list, with the number of UHNWIs tipped to rise 173 percent over the next ten years, according to the report.
However, the report notes that “this rapid growth must be balanced against the fact that, as in many of the fastest-growing cities, Ho Chi Minh’s UHNWI population is coming from a very low base.”
“Last year the city, with a total population of nine million, had an estimated UHNWI population of just 90,” it states.
Jakarta is in second place on the list, with expected growth of 148 percent, while Ordos in Inner Mongolia claims third place with 141 percent.
The top European entry is St Petersburg in Russia, while the fastest-growing Latin American city is Buenos Aires. Houston is the most buoyant urban centre in North America, with forecast growth of 57 percent.
London was home to the most UHNWIs in 2013, and this will still be the case in 2023, with nearly 5,000 expected to be living in the UK’s capital by then.
Singapore and New York will leapfrog Tokyo and Hong Kong to take second and third places respectively.
The prevalence of wealth being attracted to, and created in, cities is highlighted by the fact that the top six cities have more UHNWIs living in them than the whole of Latin America and the Middle East combined.
