Over the past five years - from 2012 to 2017 - the number of Russian citizens, a fortune that exceeds $ 5 million, was reduced by 35% due to a protracted recession in the economy and the depreciation of the ruble, according to an annual survey of the consulting company Knight Frank.

In the past year, the trend has changed. And, despite the tightening of anti-Russian restrictions and the expansion of sanctions lists, the number of Russian multimillionaires grew by 27% over the year and Russia lost only to Brazil (28%) in terms of the annual increase in the number of rich people.

It follows from the materials that the number of Russian multimillionaires, a fortune that exceeds $ 5 million, amounted to 38,120 people in 2017.

At the same time, the number of ultra-rich Russians, whose capital exceeds $ 50 million, has reached 2,620 people (Russia shares 26th place in the world with Cyprus and Portugal). The number of Russian citizens with a fortune of more than $ 0.5 billion grew by 22% over the year and reached 220 people. Together, these people own a fortune in excess of $ 470 billion. Of these, $ 410.8 billion is accounted for by dollar billionaires, follows from the global Forbes rating published on March 6. For a year the number of billionaires in Russia has grown from 96 to 102 people.

According to Knight Frank, currently 38,120 Russian multimillionaires jointly own a fortune of $ 1.2 trillion, which corresponds to 73.5% of Russia's total GDP in 2017.

What features did Knight Frank reveal in 2620 ultra-rich Russians, a fortune that exceeds $ 50 million?

Love to motherland

The consulting company cites data from the survey of The Wealth Report Attitudes Survey 2018, according to which 58% of the ultra-rich people of Russia and the CIS countries already have a second passport or dual citizenship. And another 45% are studying the possibility of moving to a permanent residence in another country. This is the highest rate among all regions of the world. In Latin America, for example, 41% of the respondents rich have a second passport and 45% plan to purchase it.

According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), over the past five years (from the second quarter of 2012 to the second quarter of 2017), inflows of money to non-bank deposits of Russians abroad have reached $ 17 billion. In the last year (from the second quarter of 2016 to the second quarter of 2017 year) this figure was $ 10 billion. Most of this period non-bank deposits of Russian citizens grew in Hong Kong - by $ 7.7 billion, the United Kingdom (by $ 543 million) and the US ($ 517 million). The amount of non-bank deposits of Russians in Switzerland for the year fell by $ 3.5 billion, in Spain - by $ 227 million, in Austria - by $ 209 million.

The total amount of Russian non-bank deposits abroad is $ 34.4 billion. The ultra-rich Russians named the spread of political populism (62% of respondents), cybercrime (54% of respondents) and terrorism (also 54%) as the main factors that negatively affect the growth of well-being.

Love for luxury

Russia plus the CIS were in 2017 leaders in the growth of the number of private aircraft. For the period from the third quarter of 2016 to the third quarter of 2017, their number increased by 7% in these countries and reached 241. The business jet fleet is increasing faster in Russia and the CIS than in Asia (plus 4%) and North America (plus 3 %). On the first place in the world in terms of the number of private planes is North America - 13,700 pieces, or 64% of the total private world fleet.

The most popular routes in the private aviation market began in 2017 flights from New York to Washington and back and flights from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and back (an average of about 2,500 flights in each direction per year).

35th place in this rating was taken by business jets from Nice to Moscow (1004 in 2017) and 44th place - flights in the opposite direction (945 per year).

According to the number of yachts over 40 m long, Russians occupy the second place in the world after the Americans. In total, the share of Russian citizens is 168 yachts. The share of US citizens is 407.

At the same time, according to the average length of the yachts, the Russians were ahead of the Americans - 59 m against the 52's. The displacement of yachts owned by Russian citizens is on average twice as high as the ships owned by the Americans - 1328 tons against 697 tons. However, according to these indicators, Russian multimillionaires were only the second. According to the average length and displacement of the yachts, the rich from Saudi Arabia (68 m and 1,873 tons respectively) are leading.

In terms of the average number of houses in ownership, the ultra-rich Russians also turned out to be among the world leaders - 3.5, yielding only to the Middle East sheikh (4.0).

Russians are leaders among multimillionaires who prefer to buy residential property abroad. Among the polled Russian multimillionaires, who are preparing to buy houses in 2018, 39% would like to do this in one of the foreign powers, 22% - at home.

The most popular countries for buying a "second home" are multimillionaires from all over the world considered Great Britain and the United States. The Russians in the top five countries for the purchase of real estate include Switzerland, Britain, Monaco, Italy and Cyprus. By the end of 2017, the number of requests for the purchase of real estate in Cyprus and Switzerland has increased among Russians by 4 times. The total number of requests for foreign real estate increased over the year by 35%.

In Moscow in 2017, 790 elite apartments were bought in new buildings (a year earlier - 706 apartments) for a total of 66.6 billion rubles. In the secondary market, 171 apartments were sold last year for a total of 30.1 billion rubles (in 2016 - 176 and 28.7 billion rubles, respectively).

Investments in commercial real estate

In 2017, Moscow took 71st place in the world in terms of investment in commercial real estate - $ 3.5 billion for the year.

The first in this indicator was the US Los Angeles, where investment in commercial real estate reached $ 21.3 billion, followed by Central London ($ 20.8 billion). On the third - the area of ​​New York Manhattan ($ 20.2 billion).

Total investment in commercial real estate around the world increased by 1.3% in 2017 to $ 840 billion.

The most attractive assets in the investment market are offices, which in 2017 accounted for 40% of the total volume of global transactions. In Moscow, the last three years, the palm tree belongs not to offices, but to commercial real estate.

According to Knight Frank, the share of transactions in the world is more than $ 500 million and $ 1 billion. Over the last five years, the number of transactions worth more than $ 1 billion has grown by a third (from 18 to 25 transactions), and transactions worth over $ 500 million - for 28% (up to 108 transactions).

At the same time in Moscow, the bulk of transactions over the past three years accounted for $ 20-49 million, and the number of transactions amounting to $ 100-300 million decreased almost twofold. As the director of the department of financial markets and investments of Knight Frank Alan Baloev explained, the market reduces the number of players who can make major transactions, and this entails a certain liquidity deficit. "In addition, since 2014, many assets have lost in value, which could affect the amount of transactions," the consulting company said in its study. The Wealth Report is published annually since 2007.