(Yicai Global) April 6 -- Eight of the world’s top 10 property billionaires are Chinese, headed by Li Ka-shing of Cheung Kong Holdings, according to the Hurun Global Real Estate Rich List 2022.

Worth CNY205 billion (USD32.2 billion), the 94-year-old Li ranked first on the list released today by the Hurun Research Institute. Li is also Hong Kong’s richest man.

Lee Shau-kee of Henderson Land Development, also 94, ranked second with CNY170 billion followed by 41-year-old Yang Huiyan of Country Garden with CNY165 billion. The threshold to make the top 10 was CNY70 billion.

Li’s wealth fell 3 percent from a year ago, while Lee’s rose 8 percent and Yang’s slipped 21 percent.

The UK’s Hugh Grosvenor, 31, ranked seventh with CNY100 billion, down 6 percent from last year. Grosvenor is the seventh Duke of Westminster and the youngest person on the list. He is also the highest-ranked non-Chinese billionaire.

The average wealth of real estate entrepreneurs jumped 5 percent over the past year, according to the list. In China, their wealth fell 3 percent, while in the United States it climbed 10 percent. 

The wealth of the world’s top 100 property entrepreneurs totaled CNY4.2 trillion (USD659.7 billion), and the threshold to make the list was CNY17.5 billion. China had the most at 52, followed by the US with 17 and the United Kingdom with eight.

China’s real estate sector has been cash-strapped since the second half of last year, said Hurun Report Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf. But the number of Chinese in the world’s top 100 still shows how big the domestic sector is, he added.

China’s urbanization rate is over 60 percent, Hoogewerf noted, and there is still room for it to grow. Many people began to invest in real estate amid the Covid-19 pandemic in order to hedge against inflation, he said.

Editor: Tom Litting