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Gals, Looking To Marry A Sugar Daddy Millionaire? Go To Ireland.
The Irish Times reports today that Ireland is now the second wealthiest nation in the world with more than 30,000 millionaires living here, according to new research published by Bank of Ireland Private Banking.
The average personal wealth per head of population in the Republic is nearly euro 150,000, the "Wealth of the Nation" report found. This is higher than average wealth of euro 137,000 in the United Kingdom and euro 129,000 in the United States.
Only Japan has higher net wealth per head of population than the Republic at euro 206,000.
Net wealth in the Irish economy has grown by 350 percent over the past decade - three times faster than the rate of growth in Britain. The growth rate takes into account the increasing levels of household debt in the economy.
Out of the estimated 30,000 millionaires, some 300 individuals are thought to have a net worth of more than euro 30 million. A further 2,700 people are reckoned to have a net worth of euro 5 million to 30 million. Bank of Ireland's definition of millionaire excludes people's main residences. If these were included, the number of millionaires in the country could be as high as 100,000.
Irish wealth is "disproportionately" skewed toward property, with 71 percent of total wealth invested in the asset last year. Some 16 percent of Irish wealth is invested in equities, while 10 percent is held in cash and 3 percent is invested in bonds.
Bank of Ireland forecasts that, by 2015, property will be less dominant. It predicts that the breakdown of investment will shift to 61 percent in property, 22 percent in equities, 12 percent in cash and 5 percent in bonds.
The move away from property will be prompted by "more realistic" property prices, while an ageing population will show more interest in investment and pension funds.
Most of the Republic's wealth is "new money" created by people's willingness to borrow to invest further, according to Mark Cunningham, Bank of Ireland Private Banking's managing director.
"It has been entrepreneurial and more risk-orientated than many other developed countries where inheritance features more prominently," he said.
Personal disposable income in the Republic has doubled over the past 10 years, and is forecast to double again over the next decade. The annual level of personal savings stood at euro 10 billion at the end of 2005 and this is forecast to increase to euro 13.5 billion by 2010 and to euro 24 billion by 2015.
Debt as a percentage of disposable income has increased from 89 percent to 140 percent in the past five years. But O'Sullivan said that neither the absolute level of borrowing nor borrowing levels relative to overall wealth were ahead of international norms.
Comments
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Posted by: Anonymous on June 30, 2007 3:48 PM