SA cities ranked among top 10 wealthiest African cities

Published Apr 2, 2017

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Johannesburg - Joburg has been ranked in the top 10 wealthiest cities in Africa and is now home to 3 200 US dollar millionaires as well as one dollar billionaire.

South Africa dominates the African city wealth list, with three cities featuring in the top 10.

Joburg is also a destination of choice for the super-rich who retire to the city. The city is also home to 130 multi-millionaires who each have a net worth of more than R10-million.

They drive Porsches, Ferraris and Bentleys and wear Armani suits. Joburg, Sandton in particular, ranked first followed by Cairo and Cape Town, while Durban was seventh on the list.

These were some of the findings of the 2016 Africa Wealth Report released by AfrAsia Bank and New World Wealth on Thursday.

The number of millionaires has increased by 500 compared with the last report. NWW defines “millionaires” or “high net worth individuals” as people with net assets of $1-million (R13m) or more.

The report said the total wealth held in Joburg amounts to $245-billion. The city is home to 18200 millionaires and two billionaires. The figures for Joburg also include Sandton.

Major sectors in the city include: financial services (banks, accountancies, insurance), professional services (law firms), construction, telecoms and basic materials.

Andrew Amoils, who compiles the report annually, said this year has seen great development in the city’s professional fields such as private health care, law and accountancy firms.

Durban was ranked number seven. Ballito and uMhlanga are tops as retirement suburbs.

“Durban has shown good growth in the last year, particularly in uMhlanga and Ballito. Residential estates in these areas are performing extremely well,” said Amoils.

He said there was good growth expected in the year ahead for the technology and health care sectors.

Also important to note is how wealthy Africans buying in South Africa are particularly interested in Sandton and other northern suburbs (Sandhurst, Hyde Park, Houghton), central Cape Town (Green Point, City Bowl) and the “big 5” Atlantic seaboard luxury hot spots in Cape Town (namely Fresnaye, Bantry Bay, Llandudno, Clifton and Camps Bay).

Some of the listed affluent suburbs in Joburg include: Sandhurst, Hyde Park, Bryanston, Houghton, Westcliff, Parktown, Saxonwold and Atholl.

The report highlighted that South Africa has 40400 dollar millionaires, and has as many as 2130 individuals who have more than R125m in their accounts. It said there were 160 millionaires in South Africa who owned private jets.

Items commonly found in the wardrobes of a HWNI in Africa include Gucci and Louis Vuitton handbags, Patek Philippe watches and Prada shoes. South Africa was the most popular African destination for the super-rich, with around 15 000 multimillionaires visiting during the year.

Major destinations included Cape Town, Johannesburg, the Garden Route, and the Whale Coast (Hermanus).

Mauritians are the wealthiest individuals in Africa with an average wealth of US$25700 per person, while people living in Zimbabwe are the poorest with $200 per person.

North African countries such as Algeria, Egypt and Morocco rank high on the list despite recent instability.

Notably, back in 2000, Zimbabwe was one of the wealthiest countries in sub-Saharan Africa on a wealth per capita basis, ranked ahead of the likes of Nigeria, Kenya, Angola, Zambia and Ghana.

However, now it is ranked well behind them.

Sunday Independent

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