GCC UHNWIs population to grow by 26 per cent by 2024

The Middle East is home to 16.581 UHNWIs up from 10.043 in 2014, a 41 per cent increase/iStock

Knight Frank said that the number of ultra-high net wealthy individuals (UHNWIs), people with a net worth of over $1 million including their primary residence, in the GCC region is expected to grow by 26 per cent over the next five years to a total of over 9.100.

Taimur Khan, Associate Partner, Knight Frank Middle East, said, “The rate of wealth creation in the GCC region is expected to remain strong.”

 In its Wealth Report 2020, Knight Frank said that over this period Saudi Arabia and the UAE will be home to 57 per cent and 23 per cent of these UHNWIs respectively.

“Over the next five years we expect the number of HNWIs ($1 million+) to increase by 12 per cent on average and UHNWIs ($30 million+) by over 26 per cent over the same period.”

Despite the International Monetary Fund reducing its forecast for global GDP growth from 3.5 per cent in January 2019 to just 2.9 per cent in January 2020, the world’s UHNWI population increased by 6.4 per cent.

The number of ultra-wealthy people around the world is predicted to grow by 27 per cent in the next five years to 2024, taking the population to just under 650.000.

According to Knight Frank, globally, more than 31.000 additional UHNWIs were created in 2019 bringing the total to more than 513.200 and Asia is projected to be the world’s second-largest wealth hub, with forecast five-year growth of 44 per cent.

The number of UHNWIs created in Asia in 2019 significantly outpaced Europe’s 4.682 UHNWI population with an extra 11.788 UHNWIs created.

“It’s exciting to see how wealth is developing across Asia and, with the number of ultra-wealthy in India, Vietnam, China and Malaysia outpacing many other markets over the next five years, it will be interesting to see how this impacts the global property market,” said Liam Bailey, Global Head of Research at Knight Frank.

Constant innovation is creating new sub-markets as well as threats and two key areas of focus that should be thematic investments in UHNWI portfolios, but currently are not are cyber-security and fintech.