Assets of Austrians Have Slightly Decreased
While financial assets remained almost stable (-0.3 percent), tangible assets such as real estate lost significant value (-5.2 percent), according to the BCG analysis.
Majority Invested in Tangible Assets
"The persistently higher interest rates continue to burden the value development in the real estate market in Austria, which traditionally has a very high weight here," says Michael Kahlich, BCG partner in Zurich and co-author of the study. Around two-thirds of the wealth in Austria is invested in tangible assets (1.7 trillion US dollars).
A key finding of the study is the still very unequal distribution of wealth: Around 400 ultra-wealthy individuals with more than 100 million US dollars in financial assets each ("Ultra High Net Worth Individuals") own 37 percent of the total financial assets in Austria. In contrast, there are 7.3 million people with less than 250,000 dollars each, who together hold only one-third of the financial assets. According to BCG, this trend is likely to intensify in the coming years: By 2029, the share of the ultra-wealthy is expected to rise to 39 percent, while that of the "masses" is expected to fall to 30 percent.
More Dollar Millionaires in Austria
The number of dollar millionaires in Austria increased by about four percent to 50,300 last year. Wealthy investors benefited disproportionately from the upswing in the financial markets, according to the study authors. "Very wealthy investors have a higher proportion of their wealth invested in the capital market and in high-yield asset classes such as private equity," explains Kahlich. "Less wealthy individuals tend to rely on lower-risk investments with lower returns, such as savings accounts, cash, or insurance."
Globally, financial assets rose by 8.1 percent to 305 trillion dollars in 2024, while tangible assets slightly decreased to 268 trillion dollars. Financial assets in North America increased particularly strongly (+14.9 percent), mainly due to the strong performance of the US stock markets. According to BCG, there are now around 84,700 ultra-wealthy individuals worldwide - an increase compared to the previous year. Most of them live in the USA (more than 33,000), followed by China (9,200) and Germany (3,900).
(APA/Red)
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