Editorial TeamAccording to sources from the South Africa Wealth Report of 2019, the 10% negative dive in wealth was a result of a poor exchange rate, a slow local property market and this migration of wealthy individuals.
The wealth report shows that 39,000 South Africans have net assets of around $1m, approximately 2000 have net assets of more $10m, 94 individuals have $100m in net assets and finally, there are 5 billionaires with net assets of at least $1bn. Some billionaires were actually born in South Africa but no longer live in the country.
Johannesburg has lost a large number of HNWIs to other parts of the country while more recently, Cape Town has been harmed by the ongoing drought which has hurt the city’s real estate market and deterred migration to the city
Furthermore, the report shows that in the wealthiest city of South Africa, Johannesburg (Joburg) has declined among HNWIs from $276bn to $248bn and so has the number of wealthy residents to 16,600 from 18,400.
The Joberg and Cape Town wealth markets which happen to be the major ones have performed poorly and a large number of wealthy individuals have moved to other parts of the country and others have migrated to other parts of the world.
South Africa is the 31st largest wealth market in the world and about $275bn of this total is held by the HNWIs.
