Real Estate Billionaires

Lee Shau Kee of Hong Kong,with an estimated net-worth of  $19.6 billion,leads Henderson Land Development, an investor in Hong Kong’s iconic International Financial Center and whose numerous mainland projects include the Henderson Metropolitan along Nanjing West Road near the Bund in Shanghai.Publicly traded Hong Kong companies controlled by Lee include the Miramar Hotel and Hong Kong and China Gas. Lee’s early business partner was Sun Hung Kai Properties late founder Kwok Tak-seng, whose sons all are among the world’s billionaires.

Cheng Yu-tung ,net worth: $16.2 billion, has long been one of Hong Kong’s richest men. He’s ailing — he’s reported to have had a stroke in 2012 and is no longer active in his varied companies. He turned over the chairmanship of his New World Development to his elder son, Henry, 66, in March 2012. Third-generation members Sonia Cheng and Adrian Cheng hold large responsibilities now.

Wang Jianlin,net worth: $15.1 billion,the richest man on mainland China,owns 75 department stores,85 shopping plazas and 51 five star hotels. After buying U.S. movie chain AMC in 2012, Wang listed it on the New York Stock Exchange in December.He flew in celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio and John Travolta to help launch an $8 billion mini-Hollywood in the coastal city of Qingdao in September 2013. Wang, born in Sichuan Province in 1954 just after the Communist revolution, spent the first few decades of his life in anything but luxury. In 1970, Wang entered the military, where he remained until 1986 when he took a city government job in Dalian in Liaoning Province.Wang became chairman of Wanda, which was government-run, in 1989 at age 35.

Donald Bren,net worth: $14.4 billion, is the wealthiest real estate developer in the U.S. and continues to get richer thanks to the rising tide of property values. His Irvine Co. holds a vast portfolio of commercial and residential properties–including about 50,000 apartments, 40 million square feet of office space, and 8 million square feet of retail in Orange County, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Silicon Valley, plus three golf clubs and five marinas. It also owns the Hyatt Center and is an investor in the UBS Tower, both in Chicago. Bren attended the University of Washington on a skiing scholarship. He joined the Marines, then built his first house with a $10,000 loan in 1958. With partners in 1977, he bought Irvine Co.–founded in 1864–for $337 million and became the firm’s sole shareholder in 1996. Bren has endowed 87 chairs and contributed millions of dollars to California’s universities, including the University of California at Irvine’s law school and its School of Information and Computer Sciences, which bears his name, as well as at Santa Barbara where he helped establish the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. He preserved half of the original 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch as permanent open space.

The U.K.’s richest landlord, Gerald Grosvenor,net worth: $ 13 billion, continues to benefit from the steadily improving real estate market for central London. Known formally as the 6th Duke of Westminster, he owns 190 acres in Belgravia, an area adjacent to Buckingham Palace and one of London’s most expensive neighborhoods. His family also has 96,000 acres in Scotland, 32,000 acres in Spain and thousands elsewhere in England. Altogether, the private Grosvenor Group owns real estate on five continents and reports just under $20 billion in assets under management. In 2013 his son, Hugh,Earl Grosvenor , is one of the seven godparents of the royal baby, Prince George.

 Thomas and Raymond Kwok,with a current net worth of $12.6 billion, saw a big drop in wealth after their family resolved its differences and eldest brother Walter received an equal entitlement to shares of Sun Hung Kai Properties. This company controls one of the largest property portfolios in Greater China, having built many of the iconic buildings that define Hong Kong’s skyline.

The Ruben brothers,David and Simon,with a current net worth of $11.5 billion, were raised in the U.K. Simon started out importing carpets and buying real estate; David in metals trading. They later joined together in Transworld, a metals trader that invested in Russia and Kazakhstan in the 1990s. Since selling their metals business, the pair have built their fortune in property, pubs and natural resources. Their Reuben Foundation funds health care and educational causes. David resides in Monaco and Florida; Simon in Monaco.

Brothers Robert and Philip Ng ,with a net worth of $11 billion, inherited a property empire from their late father Ng Teng Fong who developed more than 700 hotels, malls and condos in Singapore and Hong Kong. The largest part of their public fortune is in Tsim Sha Tsui Properties, chaired by  Robert, in Hong Kong. Philip oversees the Singapore interests.

Joseph Lau Luen Hung ,born 1951 in Hong Kong with family roots in Chaozhou, Guangdong,is a billionaire Hong Kong real estate investor who owns a 61% stake in Chinese Estates Holdings. His fortune is at $4.3 billion.

Peter Woo is based in Hong Kong.His net worth is $7.2 billion. His main commercial real estate flagship is Wharf. Wharf runs Hong Kong shopping malls Times Square and Harbor City. His holding company,controlled by his son Douglas is Wheelock & Co. He also owns 6% of Chinese real estate developer Longfor.

Publicity-shy Yang Huiyan took over her father,Yeung Kwok Keung’s stake in Country Garden before the company’s IPO in 2007, and today ranks as China’s richest woman,with a net worth of $6.9 billion.She holds a degree from Ohio State University.

 Charles Cadogan has an estimated net worth of $6.9 billion.Cadogan Estates, his family’s 300-year-old property portfolio, is known for its redevelopment of Sloane Street, a popular shopping destination in London named after an ancestor, with a new piazza of high-end shops. Formally known as the 8th Earl Cadogan, he turned over the everyday duties of running the company to his son Edward, Viscount Chelsea, in 2012. The Cadogan clan’s 90-acre estate stretches across the capital’s most desirable neighborhoods of Chelsea and Knightsbridge. He began his career at merchant banker Schroder Wagg.

Richard LeFrak and family, with a net worth of $6.1 billion,are one of the New York metro area’s biggest landlords, with dozens of properties in New York and New Jersey. They also own properties in California and Washington state. Notable holdings include the 5,000-unit apartment complex LeFrak City in Queens and more than 16 million square feet of commercial, residential and retail properties in Newport, N.J. across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan.The family also has a stake in oil wells.Affiliate firms have invested in wind energy generation. Richard’s grandfather, Harry, began developing properties in 1901; his father, Sam, expanded the company’s operations. Now sons Harrison and James are both involved.

Chan Laiwa,net worth: $6 billion, chairs the Fu Wah International Group, one of Beijing’s largest landlords. She invests in luxury hotels, clubhouses, apartments and office buildings. Properties include Regent Beijing, Legendale Hotel Beijing, Park Plaza Beijing Wangfujing, Jinbao Tower, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Beijing Clubhouse, etc. Chan is curator of the China Sandalwood Museum in Beijing, which she also owns, and a lifetime member of the Beijing Manchu Association. Chan also serves as a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a state body. Son Chiu Yung is Fu Wah group president.

Hui Ka Yan chairs Evergrande Real Estate Group of Guangzhou, one of China’s largest real estate developers. Hui has five major areas of business: residential property, commercial property, hotels, tourist complexes, sports and cultural businesses.Hui graduated from Wuhan University of Science and Technology in 1982 and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in commerce by the University of West Alabama in 2008.His net worth is $5.7 billion.

Hui Wing Mau of Hong Kong,founded and chairs Shimao Property Holdings, one of China’s largest real estate developers. Shimao Property’s 64%-owned subsidiary Shanghai Shimao, which trades at the Shanghai Stock Exchange, develops commercial real estate and is lead by Hui’s daughter Carol. Son Jason is the vice chairman at Shimao Property and heir apparent there.His net worth is $5.7 billion,

Stephen M. Ross is an American real estate developer. Ross is the chairman and majority owner of The Related Companies, a global real estate development firm he founded in 1972. Related is best known for developing the Time Warner Center, where Ross currently lives and works, as well as its new Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project.Ross has a net worth of $4.8 billion.Ross is a major benefactor of his alma mater, the University of Michigan. The University  renamed its business school, the Ross School of Business, in Ross’s honor in 2004, after Ross made a $100 million gift to fund a new business-school building.

The four Kwee brothers Kwee Liong Keng, Kwee Liong Tek, Kwee Liong Seen and Kwee Liong Phing,with a net worth of $5.2 billion are Singapore’s first family of luxury real estate. Their privately-held Pontiac Land  is known for its portfolio of posh hotels in Singapore such as The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia, Capella, Conrad Centennial, Capital Singapore as well as iconic office high rises such as Millenia Tower and Centennial Tower. The company was founded by their Indonesian father Henry Kwee, a textile trader and real estate developer who migrated to Singapore in 1958.

Harry Triguboff built his first apartment block in the Sydney suburb of Gladesville in the early 1960s. Now his Meriton is Australia’s biggest apartment builder, mostly in Sydney, and is riding a new apartment-investment boom. Born in China to Russian parents,he came to Australia as a teenager. He began his working life in the textile business, making his move into property in the early 1960s. He was one of the first Australian developers to see the potential of apartment living at a time when most of his countrymen aspired to a single-family home in suburbia. In 50 years he has put up more than 55,000 apartments, earning him the nickname “High Rise Harry.” These days Chinese are among the most enthusiastic buyers of his developments in Sydney and Brisbane.His net worth is estimated to be $5 billion.

Walter Kwok was chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties for 18 years, but a falling out with his brothers, Thomas and Raymond, led to his ouster in 2008. Two years later, his mother had him removed as a beneficiary of the family trust that owned the shares in SHKP, the second biggest property developer in Hong Kong. Now an amicable agreement has been reached between family members, giving all three brothers equal shares. For the past six years, Walter has been running his own business. He made a successful joint bid with Lai Sun Development for a site in Tseung Kwan O for HK$2.83 billion ($363 million) in late 2012.