The average billionaire is married, worth £1.79 billion (US$2.97 billion) and would never spend less than £10 million on a property, unless it was for the staff, research published on Sunday shows.
There are more than 2,170 billionaires worldwide who have a combined net worth of £3.88 trillion, up from £1.85 trillion in 2009, according to the analysis of high-end real-estate agency Beauchamp Estates and Dataloft.
Of these 2,170 billionaires, the agency said 60 percent were self-made, 20 percent had inherited their wealth and the rest had a combination of partially inherited, partially made fortunes.
Alongside soccer clubs and fine art, London property was found to be high on the list of must-haves for those with many millions of pounds in the bank, with the research showing that 67 billionaires live in the English capital, making it the most popular of Western Europe’s major cities among the ultra-wealthy, ahead of Paris with 25 and Geneva with 18.
The typical billionaire holds £50 million or more in real estate and has four homes, the research indicates, while their property portfolio would typically include a £22.3 million mansion in London; an £18.6 million holiday home on the French Riviera; a £12.1 million estate in Tuscany, Italy; and another luxury pad, perhaps somewhere more far-flung.
The researchers claim that a billionaire would “never spend less than £10 million on a London property [unless it is for a servant].”
Such a property might be in London’s posh Chelsea neighborhood, but that area is not favored by billionaires themselves, who instead prefer a mansion in the “platinum triangle,” formed by the Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Belgravia districts, the research showed.
With an average of 2.1 children each, billionaires were found to favor family homes — the bigger, the better, with six bedrooms as standard — and to rank state-of-the-art security above lifestyle facilities. Features like iris-recognition technology, his and hers panic rooms and bullet-proof doors are not unusual in luxury developments in the English capital.
“We advise UHNWIs [ultra-high net-worth individuals] buying homes in London and around the Mediterranean to set aside budgets of typically £50 million to acquire the right properties,” Gary Hersham of Beauchamp Estates said. “Most UHNWIs buying in Western Europe see having an ultra-prime home in prime central London and on the French Riviera as ‘must-have badges.’”
The research found that the world’s wealthiest individuals hold an average of 42 percent of their wealth (£750 million) in private holdings; 35 percent (£626 million) in publicly held companies; 18 percent (£322 million) in cash; 3 percent (£54 million) in residential real estate and 2 percent (£35 million) in luxury assets such as artwork, yachts and private jet travel.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process