Hong Kong is the city with the most real estate billionaires in the world with 26, accounting for more than 10% of the global total, according to a Hurun report released.

Across the globe, there are 256 billionaires whose main business is in real estate, up 17 compared to a year ago. China leads with 137, or 54% of the world’s total, according to the Hurun Global Real Estate Rich List 2020.

The U.S. has 34 real estate billionaires, equating to 13% of the world’s total, followed by the U.K. with 17, accounting for 7% of the 256 known real estate billionaires on the list.

At the metro level, China’s Guangzhou and Shenzheng, as well as the capital city of Beijing, rank second to fourth, respectively. New York comes in fifth with 15 real estate billionaires, followed by London, with 14.

The list is a sublist of the Hurun Global Rich List, which counted a record 2,816 billionaires across the globe as of January 2020.

The billionaires’ wealth is calculated in U.S. dollar amounts as of January, 2020, before the rampant coronavirus fallout and ensuing economic and stock market meltdown throughout the world.

In the year leading up to January, 167 real estate billionaires saw their wealth rise, of which 39 are new to the list.

“Overall it has been a good year for [the] world’s biggest real estate entrepreneurs,” Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, said in a statement. “The slowdown in the Chinese economy last year did not seem to have had much of an impact on China’s largest developers.”

Topping the list is Xu Jiayin, 62, of Shenzhen-based Evergrande. He has a net worth of US$33 billion, down 11% from a year ago. Hong Kong’s Li Kashing, 92, of Cheung Kong, ranks second with US$28 billion, down 3% year-over-year.

Greater China dominates the top 10 list with eight. The U.S. and the U.K. each has one. Donald Bren, 87, of California-based Irvine Company, has a net worth of US$17 billion, while U.K.’s Hugh Grosvenor, 29, of Grosvenor, has a wealth of US$17 billion.

Source: Mansion Global