Top 12 Richest Real Estate Tycoons in the World
Property values are rising, as are the fortunes of the Richest Real Estate Tycoons in the World. With the global financial crisis of the mid-2000s now a distant memory, it appears that real estate is the business to be in if you want to earn a lot of money quickly.
Commercial and residential assets are performing better than they have in the past, with worldwide office rentals and private property prices rising year after year.
The great bulk of the sector’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small handful of Asian property moguls, with a few Westerners tossed in for good measure.
With our list of the world’s wealthiest real estate investors, you can see who’s profiting the most from the rising property market. Check out, How To Make Millions In Real Estate Business.
Top 12 Richest Real Estate Tycoons in the World
12. Harry Triguboff
Net worth: $10.3 billion
Harry Triguboff, Australia’s second richest person (and the world’s 11th richest real estate investor), built his fortune by altering Sydney’s architectural environment.
Triguboff developed the notion of high-density “apartment living,” drastically altering the city’s interior and offering a surplus of inexpensive housing alternatives for its ever-growing population.
Triguboff now owns more than 75,000 units, earning him the moniker “High Rise Harry” and a net worth of $10.3 billion.
11. Peter Woo
Net Worth: $10.4 billion
Peter Woo’s $10.4 billion net worth may be traced back to his time as chairman of property developer Wheelock & Co. and its subsidiary, Wharf Holdings.
The company holds controlling stakes in firms including i-Cable Communications, Wharf New T&T, Modern Terminals Limited, and Marco Polo Hotels, as well as various buildings (including Hong Kong’s iconic Harbour City and Times Square).
Woo stepped down as Chair in 2017, although he remains on the advisory boards of a number of Fortune 500 businesses and has complete control of the luxury retail company LCJG.
10. Robert and Philip Ng
Net Worth: $12.1 billion
Robert and Philip Ng are brothers with a combined net worth of $12.1 billion. The Far East Organization, Singapore’s largest private landlord and property developer, is responsible for its riches. Their father, Ng Teng Fong, created the firm, which went to them after he died.
According to Must Share News, the couple has proceeded to grow the empire, creating Far East Hotel in 2012, which is Singapore’s largest hospitality portfolio by asset value. The Ngs are presently the second wealthiest family in Singapore and the 112th wealthiest in the world.
9. Hugh Grosvenor
Net Worth: $13 Billion
Hugh Grosvenor inherited the family’s property company after his father, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, died. Forbes estimates that Hugh Grosvenor’s property empire is worth over $15 billion. He also inherited his father’s $13 billion fortune, making him one of the wealthiest persons under 30 in the United Kingdom overnight.
8. Joseph Lau
Net worth of $16.1 billion
Joseph Lau’s fortune stems from his 61 percent interest in Chinese Estates Holdings, a major Chinese investment holding firm specializing in property leasing, money lending, and loan financing, among other things.
Despite initially disputing the allegations, Lau and his business partner Steven Lo were convicted guilty of bribery and money laundering in 2014.
Lau was sentenced to five years and three months in jail; after his appeal was refused, he fled the country and is now a fugitive in Macau (which, luckily, has no extradition treaty with China).
7. Thomas and Raymond Kwok
Net Worth: $16.5 Billion
Thomas and Raymond Kwok, together with their brother Walter, inherited the family company after their father, Kwok Tak Seng, the founder of SHK Properties (Hong Kong’s largest real estate developer), and his wife, Kwong Siu-Hing, died in 1990.
After a family conflict in 2008, Walter was forced to resign, leaving Thomas and Raymond as sole proprietors of the firm. The brothers have a combined net worth of $16.5 billion thanks to a portfolio that includes such notable buildings as Hong Kong’s tallest tower, the International Commerce Centre.
6. Donald Bren
Net worth of $17 billion.
Donald Bren is valued at $17 billion as chairman and sole owner of the Irvine Company, a real estate investment firm in the United States.
Bren, who owns more than 120,000,000 square feet of real estate in California, including numerous hotels, marinas, golf courses, 550 office buildings, 120+ apartment complexes, and over 40 shopping centers, is credited with shaping Orange County into what it is today by OC Weekly as a man who “wields more power than Howard Hughes ever did, probably as much as any man in America over a concentrated region—determining not only how people live and shop but who governs them.”
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5. David and Simon Reuben
Net Worth$18 Billion
David and Simon Reuben, British businessmen and philanthropists, are worth $18 billion combined. The brothers’ commercial efforts started in earnest in the early 1990s, when they ventured into Russian metal markets. They sold their Russian assets and reinvested in the UK property market in the early 2000s due to developments in the Russian market.
Carlton House SW1, Millbank Tower, Academy House on Sackville Street, the John Lewis Partnership headquarters in Victoria, the American Express offices in Victoria, Connaught House on Berkeley Square, Market Towers, and the John Lewis Partnership headquarters in Victoria are just a few of the notable properties they’ve acquired since then (mostly in the capital).
Oxford Street’s Primark store; Sloane Street stores; and Cambridge House, the old Naval and Military Club’s headquarters. The brothers’ fortunes have skyrocketed in the last decade, and they now rank as Britain’s second wealthiest family.
4. Wang Jianlin
Net worth of $20.2 billion
Dalian Wanda Group is China’s largest commercial real estate developer, with over 260 plazas, and its chairman, Wang Jianlin, is China’s fourth richest person. Despite the fact that he has reduced his activity in recent years, Jianlin still has a massive net worth of $20.2 billion.
3. Yang Huiyan
Net worth of $23.4 billion
Yang Huiyan is the wealthiest lady on our list. Her 57 percent interest in real estate developer Country Garden Holdings, which she inherited after her father, Yeung Kwok Keung, died in 2007, is the source of her fortune.
Yang is the chair of Bright Scholar Education Holdings, the largest publicly owned operator of foreign and bilingual K-12 schools in China, in addition to her work with the property business. Yang holds the title of Asia’s richest woman, with a net worth of $23.4 billion.
2. Hui Ka Yan
Net Worth $26.68 billion
Hui Ka Yan, a businessman who Forbes rates as China’s third-richest person and the world’s 22nd richest person, just missed out on a spot at the top of our richest Real Estate Tycoons in the World ranking. Hui’s vast fortune stems from his position as chairman of Evergrande Group, China’s largest and most lucrative real estate conglomerate.
Hui started the company in 1996 with the goal of purchasing low-cost buildings in emerging economies and reselling them for a profit. The company presently has over 800 projects in over 280 locations, as well as owning a controlling stake in Guangzhou Evergrande, one of China’s most successful soccer clubs.
1. Lee ShauKee
Net worth: $28.6 billion
Lee ShauKee, a 91-year-old real estate mogul and philanthropist who is Hong Kong’s second richest man and the world’s 29th richest person, completes our list of the richest Real Estate Tycoons in the World.
He co-created Sun Hung Kai, a multibillion-dollar property developer, alongside Kwok Tak-Seng, and he also formed Henderson Land Development, a property behemoth whose vast property portfolio accounts for the majority of his massive $28.6 billion net worth.
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