Pour money into luxury real estate

According to Knight Frank, the number of China's ultra-rich (those with a net worth of at least $30 million) will increase by 50% in the next few years, from more than 98,500 in 2023 to nearly 145,000 in 2028.

This is a huge number and the total assets of this group are huge. According to the Hurun Global Rich list released at the end of April, in 2024, China will have 814 USD billionaires, the most in the world.

The question is where are China's super-rich keeping their assets?

Experts on CNBC said that the investment trend of China's super-rich is "conservative". Recently, they have not invested much in stocks and common real estate in the country, but instead poured a lot of money into super-luxury real estate in this country.

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The investment trend of China's super-rich is "conservative". Illustration photo: Getty Images

That trend is getting stronger in the context of Beijing loosening ownership restrictions and taxes on the real estate market and recently appearing a number of super-luxury real estate projects in central locations of big cities, on prime land and diamond land.

In the current context, luxury real estate in Shanghai is considered a valuable asset, helping the super-rich Chinese to store money. These are highly liquid assets, easy to resell. Ultra-luxury real estate is the top investment choice because of the scarcity of this type of item.

On CNBC, Sam Xie - Director of CBRE's China market research department - said that the price of new houses in Shanghai in the first quarter was at least 2.75 million USD, up 38% compared to the same period last year.

Looking for assets in the US, Europe

In the context of the economic instability in the past few years, the Chinese super-rich tend to invest their money in many types of assets in the international market, including the US and Europe. That is stocks, US bonds or stocks in other developed markets.

On CNBC, Nick Xiao - CEO of Hywin International Family Wealth Management - said that China's super-rich are pouring money into US and Japanese stocks to get high returns. This trend will "not reverse in the near future".

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A corner of the financial center in Shanghai. Photo: Getty Images.

That trend is also reflected in the growing flow of money from wealthy Chinese into China QDII (a channel that allows Chinese institutions and fund managers to convert renminbi into foreign currencies to invest abroad).

This is also in line with the general defensive trend of China's super-rich in the context of recent instability in the world's second-largest economy. In addition, there are unpredictable geopolitical fluctuations on a global scale.

One asset class that is particularly popular with China’s wealthy is US Treasury bonds, which offer low risk and high returns. This is also what differentiates China’s super-rich from their peers in many other countries around the world, who often choose to invest in mutual funds or multi-asset funds.

In recent years, the lifestyle of China’s wealthy has also changed a lot, towards quiet luxury, less flashy and ostentatious. This is also a common trend in the world, such as in the US and Europe, when the economy is slowing down in many places, unemployment is increasing.

Vietnam has 752 super-rich people, many 'tycoons' have not been revealed . Knight Frank's statistics show that Vietnam has 752 super-rich people and the number will increase rapidly, the growth rate is in the top 5 in Asia - Pacific.