Today/MalayMail-May 30
How much do you need to be in the top one per cent of your country’s population in terms of wealth? Just US$485,000 (S$655,000) in net wealth in Malaysia is all it takes for you to be categorized as the richest one per cent here, or to be richer than 99 per cent of the Malaysian population, according to property consultancy Knight Frank’s latest report. This US$485,000 level in Malaysia is far lower than the US$3.5 million (S$4.7 million) minimum wealth you need to have in Singapore, before you can be categorized as richer than the remaining 99 per cent of Singapore’s population. According to Knight Frank’s latest edition of its The Wealth Report (Wealth Sizing Model), its own definition of an ultra-high net worth individual (UHNWI) — someone who owns more than US$30 million wealth — actually requires greater wealth size compared to what is perceived as “the one per cent”. “While ‘the 1 per cent’ might be thought of as the epitome of excess, the price of access to the club falls well short of our definition of a UHNWI — somebody whose net wealth exceeds US$30 million,” Knight Frank said in its report. The Knight Frank report did not state the number of individuals in Malaysia who would meet the minimum US$485,000 needed to be among the country’s top one per cent of wealthy individuals. However, the same report said the number of wealthy individuals has continued to grow in Malaysia, with those being high net worth individuals (HNWI) or owning over US$1 million numbering 58,395 persons in 2017, before growing to 66,682 in 2021 and to 85,126 in 2022. Read more at:
