Fact of the Day: China has the Most Property Billionaires

Hui Ka-yan of Evergrande is the richest property billionaire in China

Perhaps not surprisingly, China has the largest number of property billionaires thanks to three decades of economic growth and people's pursuit of buying a home.

According to the 2019 Hurun Global Real Estate Rich List, China has 108 US dollar billionaires out of 239 around the world, while the United States has 26, the UK 17 and Hong Kong 25.

Li Ka-shing is among the top property tycoons in Hong Kong

China's economic development has fueled the boom of people leaving the countrysides and moving to the cities looking for work, which surged demand for housing.

"The urbanization mega trend in China has driven the biggest wealth explosion in the history of the world, with the result that most of the world's largest real estate developers today come from China," said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the Hurun Report.

Housing used to be provided by the state during the early days of the Communist Party's centrally controlled planned economy. Private housing only emerged two decades ago as the government experimented with capitalism to allow homes to be sold for profit, with the very first land sale taking place in 1987.

Many of the biggest Chinese developers today -- including Country Garden Holdings, China Vanke Group, China Evergrande and Wanda Group -- owe their establishment to the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s.

Another Hong Kong property tycoon is Lee Shau-kee

Seven of the world's top 10 property tycoons are Chinese, the wealthiest is Evergrande's chairman, Hui Ka-yan, who is also known as Xu Jiayin in his native Hunan province, with an estimated net worth of 250 billion yuan (US$37 billion).

Hong Kong has 25 billionaires, including Li Ka-shing and Lee Shau-kee. Shenzhen has 17 billionaires, and Beijing has 15, according to the Hurun Report.