SA has fewer millionaires, says global wealth review

The number of high net worth individuals in SA is on the decline.

AfrAsia Bank and Sandton-based New World Wealth recently reviewed the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on millionaires as part of the research for their 2020 Global Wealth Migration Review.

Wealth analyst Andrew Amoils told TimesLIVE that the number of SA millionaires had dropped by about 18% from December 2019 to June 2020.

"The drop is mainly due to the rand, which increased from R14/$1 in December 2019 to R17/$1 in June 2020.

"The JSE all share index is also down significantly this year, as is the local top-end residential market," said Amoils.

He said going forward, it is expected more wealthy South Africans will work remotely in 2021 "from affluent towns such as Hermanus, Franschhoek, Umhlanga and Plettenberg Bay".

Private jets on the rise

"We also expect estate living to become more popular, along with private jet travel," he said.

The review showed that globally, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced many wealthy people to change their spending habits.

Amoils said the world's super-rich are expected to move away from using commercial airlines to private jet travel in the new year, and many will chose to work remotely and live in smaller towns.

"The coronavirus has also had a severe impact on the overall worldwide economy. Our latest estimates show that global high net worth individual wealth levels have dropped by 14% from January 1 to June 30.

"It should be noted that some countries have contained the pandemic relatively well, which should positively impact on their ability to recover economically from the crisis.

"Countries that appear to have handled it best include New Zealand, South Korea, Australia, Malta and Mauritius. There are a relatively low number of coronavirus-related fatalities in these countries," Amoils said.

TimesLIVE