Low yacht inflation is helping billionaires boost their net worths during a “golden era” akin to Victorian times

Negligible inflation may be helping the average shopper splurge more cash down the supermarket, but when it comes to billionaires it is helping pave the way for relatively cheaper yachts, luxury homes and staff. 

 

The average European billionaire has seen their wealth increase by 11.9 per cent in the last year, taking their net worth up to £2bn. 

 

At the same time, the cost of private yachts has risen by just 6.5 per cent, while “super-prime” homes have increased by 3.9 per cent across Europe. Staff costs have risen by three per cent, while travel costs have gone up by just 2.9 per cent. 

 

Beauchamp Estates, which compiled the Ultra Prime Barometer survey looking at this data, said Europe's billionaires were enjoying “a new golden age not seen since the super-rich of the Victorian era”.

 

And they are increasingly turning to London, making it the “world's top address” for billionaires.

 

Despite homes generally being much smaller than in other key European destinations, the UK capital is the primary home to 72 billionaires, worth £116bn between them, up from 67 last year. A further 70 people make London the location of their second or third home, beating New York, Moscow, Hong Kong, Paris, Geneva and Madrid. 

 

The typical billionaire – of which there are 2,325 worldwide – is aged 63. 

 

“The billionaire homes bonanza is set to continue,” Beauchamp Estates said in the report. 

 

“Over the last five years the number of billionaires around the world has been growing at a rate of more than seven per cent per annum, so by 2020 at the current rate of growth, there could potentially be over 3,870 billionaires around the world.”