Property mints a billionaire
Sir Robert Jones is New Zealand’s newest billionaire, according to the latest NBR Rich List.
The property tycoon, who turns 80 this year, has been estimated to have a net worth of about $1 billion. That’s up from $860 million the year before.
It was reported last week that he had paid $10.11m for Civic Assurance House on Lambton Quay in Wellington, his 18th office building in the capital city’s central business district.
Other well-known Wellington CBD buildings owned by Robt. Jones Holdings (RJH) include David Jones, Midland Chambers, Lambton Centre, Lambton House, Harbour Tower, Featherston House and the Bayleys building.
He also owns the Crombie Lockwood Tower and SAP Tower in Auckland’s Queen St as well as the AIA building in Takapuna.
RJH was formed in 1961 and says it is New Zealand’s largest private CBD office building owner, with about 900 tenancies in Wellington, Auckland, Sydney and Glasgow and assets of more than $2b.
Gareth Kiernan, the chief forecaster at Infometrics, said a range of factors had combined to boost Jones’ net worth to $1b.
These included ‘‘borrowing to purchase – i.e. leverage, which is most easily achievable with property; the lack of a capital gains tax; and some combination of talent and luck for picking the right properties to buy and getting the timing right’’, Kiernan said.
There are nine billionaires and five billionaire families on this year’s Rich List.
Graeme Hart remains top of the list. He has become the first New Zealander to reach wealth of $10b, according to the NBR.
Twenty newcomers join the Rich List this year.
Only four of them are involved in businesses that are not based directly or indirectly on property ownership.
Mark Lister, of Craigs Investment Partners, said it was likely that the Rich List would continue to be dominated by investors who were heavily exposed to property.
‘‘As interest rates remain low, and the economy manages to eke out a bit of growth, the path for asset prices is generally an upward one,’’ he said.
‘‘I suspect the love affair New Zealanders have with property means that it is the investment vehicle of choice for many, so property investors will always be well represented because of that.
‘‘It might also be a bit more difficult to ascertain the exact value of many businesses, particularly unlisted ones, so maybe the Rich List doesn’t have full information on those that have their wealth spread over nonproperty assets.’’
The Mowbray siblings, who run toy company Zuru, were some of the biggest movers on the list, now worth about $3b.