Top rich real estate speculators: Silicon Valley bosses are busy hoarding Buffett and optimistic about Dubai property market.

Amancio ortega, the 83-year-old head of Inditex Group, the parent company of Spanish fast fashion giant Zara, ranked sixth on the Forbes rich list. In the recent month of 165438+ 10, he bought an office building in Seattle, USA for nearly 376 million euros. Zara's difficult transformation has not affected the pace of this world-class real estate speculator.

Since Inditex Group 200 1 went public, Ortega has purposefully used stock dividends to bargain for cash, and established a real estate investment company Pontegadea for this purpose. By the end of 20 18, the total value of Ortega's real estate investment has reached 9.767 billion euros. The famous products he once threw into the shopping cart include the buildings where Facebook's second headquarters and Amazon's Seattle headquarters are located, as well as Apple's flagship stores in Barcelona, Valencia, Spain and Paris, France. Last year, Pontegadea's rental income reached 362 million euros, of which 565,438+0% came from Europe, 46% from the United States and 3% from Asia.

In addition to the rich in this clothing industry, it is difficult for the upstarts in Silicon Valley across the ocean to resist the temptation of fixed assets. Even Warren Buffett, a senior investor, expressed his willingness to enter the Dubai real estate market this year. Despite the slowdown in global economic growth, the enthusiasm of the rich real estate speculators has not subsided.

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California real estate speculators

Despite the reputation of Silicon Valley technology, hoarding land is still an important option for a company's development.

Apple's annual report Form 10-K released last year showed that by the end of 20 18, Apple had owned about 30 square kilometers of land, while at 20 1 1, the figure was only 2 square kilometers.

Apple prefers buying land directly to leasing. In Iowa, Nevada and North Carolina, far from Silicon Valley, Apple has invested billions of dollars to build data centers and set up server farms for iMessage, App Store, Apple Music or iCloud.

Coincidentally, at the beginning of this year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that he planned to spend at least $654.38+03 billion this year to build new data centers and offices in 654.38+04 states in the United States and expand several existing core office spaces. It is estimated that * * * will create tens of thousands of construction jobs.

On this basis, Google can expand its business to Nevada, Ohio, Texas and Nebraska.

In July this year, Australian construction company LendLease announced that it had won a contract from Google to jointly develop real estate projects worth $654.38+05 billion in California. LendLease said that the two sides will jointly undertake the overall planning, land development rights and development of the three major areas in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As the capital of science and technology, California is also the state with the largest number of people on the American 400 Rich List. The 20 19 list shows that the total wealth of 99 California billionaires is $690.9 billion, setting a historical record. Although diversified industries continue to promote rapid economic growth, the proliferation of technology giants has also pushed up housing prices, which has also spawned the housing rental company airbnb. When the company was born in 2008, the average monthly rent of an apartment in San Francisco was still $2,368, but now it has climbed by 86% to $4,404.

The inspiration of renting houses has also inspired the young rich of millennials. This year's Global Luxury and Wealth Engine report released by Kewei International Real Estate Agency pointed out that almost half of these young people are concentrated in California, accounting for 44%. At present, 93% of millennial millionaires have net assets ranging from $ 654.38+0 million to $2.5 million. Nearly 60% of millennial millionaires live in California or New York, and their investment in real estate exceeds that of older millionaires.

The report also pointed out that these young rich people attach great importance to housing ownership and believe that in the long run, real estate is the key to wealth accumulation. Even young millionaires in their twenties know that their lives will change. They may only plan to live in their own property for two or three years, and then turn it into a rental property.

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Buffett is optimistic about Dubai

According to the Global Wealth Report 20 18 issued by Credit Suisse Banking Research Institute, compared with 20 17, only real estate investment increased in 20 18, with an increase of 2.8%.

The temptation of the house, even the stock god who believes in value investment has not been spared.

After the shareholders' meeting of Berkshire Hathaway this year, its real estate subsidiary announced that it plans to open an office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and expand its brokerage business to the Middle East market-"Dubai has always been the focus of our global network expansion. It is a representative of the world's leading innovation and a global trade, logistics, tourism and financial center. "

According to the data of Dubai real estate transaction portal Bayut, the house price in the UAE exceeded 65,438+0.900 dirhams/square foot (about 65,438+0.95 million RMB/square meter) at the peak of 2065,438+04, and then it fell to the bottom. In February this year, Standard & Poor's rated Dubai's house prices as falling by 5-65438+ this year, due to the persistent oversupply.

According to the World Wealth Report released by Capgemini Management Consulting, Dubai ranks first in the Middle East and fourth in the world in attracting two real estate investments, after new york, London and Hongkong.

This also aroused Buffett's interest. Phil Sheridan, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Gulf Properties, said that after several years of falling house prices in Dubai, many high-net-worth clients began to think that the Dubai real estate market has extraordinary value.

20 19 In August, IBC Group, headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, announced on Wednesday that it planned to acquire the property of Dubai10,000 to decorate and manage holiday homes.

The company said that it has signed an exclusive agreement with Berkshire Hathaway to act as a consultant broker in the real estate service in the Gulf region, assisting in the identification, acquisition and financing of real estate. The transaction value in the agreement is $5 billion, which may be extended to acquire 654.38+000 properties in more than 654.38+000 cities around the world.

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Right or wrong of success or failure

The big boss's enthusiasm for the property market has also brought many social problems.

Take San Francisco as an example. With the rise of unicorns, the polarization between the rich and the poor is becoming more and more serious. With the skyrocketing housing prices, homeless people can only sleep on warm steam vents. In San Francisco, the annual income of a family of four is 1 17400 dollars, and it is classified as a low-income group in San Francisco, with about 7500 people wandering around the city every night.

The aborigines pointed the finger at these upstarts in Silicon Valley, and they also made a compromise.

In June this year, sundar pichai, CEO of Google, issued a document saying that he would invest $654.38 billion to buy 20,000 houses in San Jose, Greater Bay Area, USA. This plan is not aimed at the welfare housing of his own employees, but at the affordable housing project for low-and middle-income groups in the Bay Area.

Facebook has invested more than $654.38 million in Silicon Valley to build affordable housing and multifunctional housing. CEO Zuckerberg's wife, Chen Zuckerberg Foundation, also co-founded a new fund of 500 million US dollars with other institutions, and plans to build or renovate more than 8,000 affordable housing units in five counties in the Bay Area in the next five years to 10.

Apple announced a $2.5 billion plan, including $654.38+0 billion in affordable housing investment fund, $654.38+0 billion in mortgage assistance for first-time buyers, and opening up some land owned by Apple worth $300 million for development. The remaining $200 million will be used for the San Francisco Housing Fund and support for vulnerable groups.

However, on the second day after Apple's plan was announced, Vermont Senator bernie sanders, the 2020 presidential candidate, criticized that Apple would not solve the increasingly serious housing crisis in California, but would only increase real estate investment-"Apple announced that it would enter the real estate loan business, in order to distract its attention from helping to create the housing crisis in California, at the same time, it received a subsidy of 800 million US dollars from taxpayers and maintained a quarter of its overseas income to avoid payment.

Of course, there are also many rollover cases that are keen on buying a house, such as Wework, which staged an IPO farce this year.

After years of barbaric expansion in the cloak of a technology company, former CEO Neumann paid the price for his madness. During this period, he bought at least five luxury houses, including a townhouse worth $65,438+5,000; In 20 17, he spent another $35 million to buy four apartments in a building in Manhattan.

When people carefully read the prospectus, it was discovered that Newman owned four buildings rented by WeWork, and all these houses were bought by borrowing money from the company at extremely low interest rates.

Similarly, renting his own property to the company, Neumann is far less watertight than Ortega-Inditex brand is Ortega's largest tenant, and it is also ruthless in collecting rent. Although the outside world once questioned whether Inditex deliberately paid the rent higher than the market price to help Pontegadea get more income in disguise, he rented it to H&; M, the price is the same.