Updated
Updated · South China Morning Post · Aug 8
Beijing, Shanghai Lose Ultra-Wealthy Households as Combined Total Falls to 34,700
Updated
Updated · South China Morning Post · Aug 8

Beijing, Shanghai Lose Ultra-Wealthy Households as Combined Total Falls to 34,700

3 articles · Updated · South China Morning Post · Aug 8

Summary

  • 34,700 ultra-high-net-worth households remained in Beijing and Shanghai at the start of 2025, with both cities posting year-on-year declines despite still holding 27.4% of China’s total.
  • 100 million yuan was the report’s wealth threshold, and weaker property prices, volatile markets and slower economic growth were cited as the main drags on household wealth.
  • 126,500 such households were counted nationwide, still heavily concentrated in three wealth hubs: Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.
  • 39,680 households were in the Yangtze River Delta, down 1.8%, while Guangdong had 16,700, down 2.3%; the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster fell 4.8% to 21,700.
  • 58% of Guangdong’s total sat in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, underscoring how China’s private wealth remains clustered around finance, technology, exports and manufacturing centers.

Insights

With a tiny elite holding most assets, will the ongoing property crash finally force a radical redistribution of Chinese wealth?
As China's real estate bubble bursts, are the ultra-wealthy quietly moving their trillions to offshore havens like Hong Kong?
Could the shrinking number of China's ultra-rich actually be a deliberate policy success disguised as an economic downturn?