Falling property prices lead to tough times for Australian millionaires by: Olga Galacho From: The Courier-Mail June 21, 2012 12:00am
RARE SPECIES: Gina Rinehart may be the world's richest woman, but overall fewer Australians are worth seven figures.
AUSTRALIA boasts the world's richest woman in Gina Rinehart, but the number of millionaires in the nation fell nearly 7 per cent last year.
Falling property prices and a weak stock market saw the number of Aussie millionaires drop to 179,500 - a fall of 13,400 compared to the previous year, according to the 2012 World Wealth Report.
But the research shows that for the first time there were more millionaires in the Asia-Pacific region than anywhere else in the world, including the US.
Last year, the number of wealthy Asians grew by 1.6 per cent to 3.37 million, sur-passing the 3.35 million millionaires in the US.
However, the combined wealth of the individuals remained greater in the US at $11.4 trillion, compared to $10.7 trillion in Asia-Pacific.
BRW's Rich 200 list puts combined Aussie wealth of the top 200 earners at $181 billion.
However, it noted that half of the people on the list experienced a fall in wealth compared to the previous year.
The report by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management said property prices in Australia declined in all four quarters in 2011 as higher borrowing costs curbed demand.
"Australia's real gross domestic product growth in 2011 was 1.7 per cent, compared to 2.8 per cent in 2010," Capgemini's Dorus van den Biezenbos said.
"In addition, market capitalisation decreased by 17.6 per cent and real estate prices fell by 4.8 per cent in 2011."
Mr van den Biezenbos said that on the flip side, there are some positive drivers of wealth in Australia such as a boost to demand for capital goods because of the mining expansion and the resulting jump in exports from the sector.
Last year was the most volatile period in 15 years, mostly because of concerns over the eurozone debt crisis, he said.
Globally, of the top 12 countries by population Brazil saw the greatest percentage rise - 6.2 per cent - in the number of high net worth individuals.
