The Buildings Behind The World's Richest Real Estate Barons

Last month, Forbes, a well-known American business and financial magazine, published its list of the 20 richest real estate billionaires in the world in 2016.

Here are the top 5 from the list:

1. Wang Jianlin

According to Forbes, Wang Jianlin of China is the world's richest real estate baron with a net worth of $28.7 billion. He is the richest person in Asia and comes in at the world's 18th-richest person overall.

Wang's Wanda Group also called Dalian Wanda, is China's largest commercial real estate development company. The company has a huge portfolio that includes movie theatres, department stores, 84 hotels, karaoke centres, 133 Wanda plazas and commercial zones in China that integrate dining, shopping, leisure and entertainment. In 2012, the company bought the AMC movie theatre chain in the U.S. for $2.6 billion.

2. Donald Bren

Donald Bren is well known for his involvement in developing Orange County in California through the Irvine company. According to Forbes, he has a net worth of $15.2 billion. The company has invested in nearly 100 million square feet of residential, retail, office and resort properties in California, Chicago and New York.

3. Stephen Ross

Stephen Ross is a top American real estate developer with a net worth of $12 billion. He is the chairman and founder of Related Companies.

4. Stan Kroenke

Stan Kroenke is America's 55th richest person. In February, he bought a Ranch in Texas, a property that was listed for a whopping $725 million. With 510,000 acres, the ranch is the size of six counties (bigger than Los Angeles and New York combined). The property carries annual property taxes of $800,000.

He founded the Kroenke Group in Columbia, Missouri in 1983. The real estate management and development company bought smaller malls and retail centres.

5. Richard LeFrak

Richard LeFrak is the CEO and chairman of the real estate development company called LeFrak. The firm bought 600 acres of land in Jersey City and developed it into an area known as Newport which was $10 billion project. This area includes hotels, apartment building, schools, malls, offices and parks.

Reference: Forbes Magazine

http://www.forbes.com/…/the-buildings-behind-the-worlds-r…/…