India is ranked fourth in terms of the number of billionaires in the real estate sector with 5.1% of Indian billionaires in the industry. While the richest realtor in the world is Lee Shau Kee of Henderson Land, Rajiv Singh of DLF tops the list from India, according to the 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List.

Kee is ranked 48 on the global list and has a  net worth of $27 billion. Rajiv Singh is ranked 317 with a net worth of $8.8 billion.The cumulative wealth of Indian Real estate billionaires featured in the 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List increased by 33% compared to a wealth reduction of 8% for the global real estate billionaires, it noted.

The cumulative wealth in 2021 of real estate billionaires in the world was $1018.4 bn while in 2022 it was $932.6 billion. In India, it was $35.2 billion in 2021 and $46.9 billion in 2022, it said. At 412 rank is Macrotech Developers’ Mangal Prabhat Lodha and family with a net worth of $7 billion. At 482 rank is Mindspace Business Parks Reit’s Chandru Raheja and family with a net worth of $6 billion.

Niranjan Hiranandani and their family is ranked 828 with a net worth of $4 billion and Vikas Oberoi of Oberoi Realty is ranked 1050 with a net worth of $3 billion. Subhash Runwal and the family of Runwal Developers is ranked 1767 with a net worth of $2 billion and Atul Ruia and the family of Phoenix Mills is ranked 2843 in the global list with a net worth of $1 billion.

“India’s real estate industry has a significant role to play in this wealth creation driven by urbanisation. Indian real estate developers had a good year compared to their global peers,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and chief researcher, Hurun India and Pankaj Bansal, Director, M3M India.

“As Andrew Carnegie, one of the greatest philanthropists said ‘90% of all millionaires become so through owning real-estate.’ The real estate sector is ranked 3rd amongst major sectors in India and is also the second-largest in terms of employment generation, and it particularly delivers in short-term and long-term employment creation,” Pankaj Bansal, Director, M3M India said.

“This sector is also looking forward to contributing 13% in India’s GDP by 2025 and reaching a market size of $1 trillion by 2030. No wonder, it contributed 8.1% to the overall list of billionaires and possesses a concentration of 275 billionaires which I am certain will see a significant jump in the next 5 years owing to unmet housing demands generated by urbanisation and modernisation of towns,” he said.