The real estate industry is considered a "golden job" in many countries and cities - a good real estate agent can make enough money, and builders and developers can make a lot of money as long as they are good at finding opportunities.
Although looking at the list of the world's top richest people, most of the top ones are technology giants, such as Tesla's Elon Musk, Amazon's Bezos, and Microsoft's Gates, but the net worth of the top real estate tycoons should not be underestimated.
The Insider Monkey website has taken stock of the list of the richest "bigwigs" in the real estate industry in 2024, let's see who they are and how much net worth they have!
1st place: Lee Shau Kee
Lee Shau Kee
Net worth: $28.3 billion
Lee Shau Kee, a 96-year-old Hong Kong business magnate and major shareholder of Henderson Land Properties, nicknamed the "Fourth Uncle", has become the richest man in the global real estate industry.
In 2021, his net worth once exceeded 33 billion, becoming the second richest person in Hong Kong and one of the 50 richest people in the world after his "happy enemy" Li Ka-shing. In 1997, he was the fourth richest person in the world.
In addition to running a huge real estate empire, Lee Shau Kee is also a well-known philanthropist, having donated a total of HK$900 million to the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His business also includes hospitality, catering, internet services.
2nd place: Kushar Pal Singh
Kushal Pal Singh Tewatia
Net worth: $20.3 billion
Kushar Pal Singh owns DLF, India's largest real estate company, and he is also one of the richest people in India, with a net worth of more than $20 billion as of April 27, 2024, compared to less than $8 billion three years ago.
Kushar Pal Singh, who is also 92 years old this year, is a former Indian Army officer who has been in the real estate industry since 1979 and owns 42 square kilometres of land.
3rd place: Donald Buren
Donald Bren
Net worth: $18 billion
The top three real estate tycoons are all over 90 years old — Donald Blum, 91, owns the American real estate giant Irvine Co., Irvine Inc., which owns 129 million square feet of real estate in Southern California alone, including 125 buildings and 590 office buildings.
As early as 1958, at the age of 26, Bren founded the Bren Company and began to build houses, starting a business career that has been 65 years since then, and can be said to have dedicated his life to the real estate industry. Buren is currently ranked 104th on the list of the richest people in the world.
4th place: Harry Trigupov
Harry Triguboff
Net worth: $16.2 billion
Another "post-90s" - fourth-ranked Harry Trigupoff is 91 years old and the owner of Meriton, Sydney's largest real estate company. Surprisingly, he was born in Darien, China, a descendant of Russian Jews, and lived in Tianjin, China.
Since 1961, Harry Trigubov has obtained Australian citizenship and began his real estate career in Sydney, becoming Australia's richest man in 2016 with assets of 11.62 billion Australian dollars.
Fifth place: Wu Guangzheng
Peter Woo
Net worth: $14.1 billion
Two of the five richest tycoons in the real estate industry are from Hong Kong, China. Born in 1946, the 78-year-old Wu Guangzheng is the youngest of the top five. Born in Shanghai, he moved to Hong Kong and served as Chairman of Wheelock & Plc Limited.
His real estate investments are not limited to Hong Kong, but also include Chinese mainland and Singapore, and he was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2012 and appointed as a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Sixth place: Liu Luanxiong
Joseph Lau Luen Hung
Net worth: $13.1 billion
is still a well-known name for the Chinese, a famous Hong Kong entrepreneur nicknamed "Da Liu", the former chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Chinese Estates Group, and he also has ties to Canada - graduated from the University of Windsor, Canada.
Among all the real estate tycoons, Liu Luanxiong's high-profile degree is unparalleled: it was revealed that he spends 10,000 Hong Kong dollars a day on food, owns a number of private jets, and more than 20 luxury cars, and the license plates of each luxury car are exquisite, and the total value of the license plates alone has reached 40 million Hong Kong dollars.
7th place: Manuel Vera
Manuel Bamba Villar Jr.
Net worth: $11.4 billion
Manuel Vera, 74, is the first person in the Philippines to hold the board of directors of Vista Land & Lifescapes. He also served as a senator from the Philippines between 2001 and 2013. Born in the slums of Manila, he worked his way up to become the richest man in the Philippines.
Eighth place: Kwong Shaoqing
Kwong Siu Hing
Net worth: $11.4 billion
The 94-year-old Hong Kong real estate tycoon Kwong Shaoqing is the only woman in the top 10 with a net worth of $11.4 billion. She currently controls Sun Hung Kai Properties, and she is the widow of its founder, Kwok Tak-shing, and is an inheritance of wealth.
9th place: Mangar Prabat Loda
Mangal Prabhat Lodha
Net worth: $10.6 billion
Mangar Prabat Loda is the second richest person in India's real estate industry, owning Macrotech Developers, a real estate development company founded in 1980. In 2020, he barely managed to break into the top 100 of the world's richest real estate list, and now he has jumped to the top 10.
10th place: Stephen Rose
Stephen Ross
Net assets: $10.1 billion
Stephen Rose, the 83-year-old American real estate developer and owner of the Miami Dolphins football team, is the chairman and founder of The Related Companies, and has been building and investing in real estate around the world since 1972, including Deutsche Bank Center and Hudson Yards.
If you continue to look at the rankings, you can find that there are still some Chinese in the top 25, such as:
Choi Che-ming, a real estate developer in Hong Kong, ranked 13th, Lo Ka Po, chairman of Pak Lok Group, a billionaire in Hong Kong, ranked 17th, and Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, ranked 25th.
If the "No. 1 Internet celebrity" in the United States, former President Trump, is also counted as a person in the real estate industry now, then he is actually not in the top 25, and his current total assets are $5.1 billion.
In general, the top richest people in the real estate industry still have a lot less assets than the top richest people in the technology and luxury industries. And unlike the "heroes out of teenagers" in the technology and fashion industries, if you want to become a top rich man in the real estate industry, you generally have to go through thousands of tempers and years of hard work.