Billionaires can live wherever they want.

It’s one of the perks of a 10-digit fortune. That, and not having to worry about rent and other #realworldproblems.

Although they can live anywhere, of the 2 153 members of the 2019 Forbes World’s Billionaires List, 551 billionaires have all chosen to live in just 10 cities, reports Forbes.

Six of those cities also feature on the list of the most expensive cities in the world.

Let’s start at 10 and work our way up.

10. Mumbai

Number of Billionaires: 37

Total Net Worth: $184,4 billion

Richest Resident: Oil and gas heir Mukesh Ambani, $50 billion.

Mumbai is home to what is likely the most expensive residence on earth: Ambani’s $1 billion 27-story palace. It was also the site of one of the biggest, costliest weddings ever, again courtesy of Ambani. He hosted the week-long blockbuster celebration for his daughter Isha and the son of fellow billionaire Ajay Piramal in December 2018.

You can see Hillary Clinton dancing at that wedding here.

9. Seoul

Number of Billionaires: 38

Total Net Worth: $99,9 billion

Richest Resident: Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, $16,9 billion

All but one of South Korea’s billionaires reside in its biggest city, and all are South Korean citizens. Seoul’s richest people control the nation’s biggest businesses, including global powerhouses Samsung and Hyundai.

South Korea is also the world’s fourth largest gaming market.

8. Shenzhen

Number of Billionaires: 39

Total Net Worth: $190,5 billion

Richest Resident:  Tencent CEO Ma Huateng, $38,8 billion.

Designated as a “special economic zone” during Chinese economic reforms of the 1980’s, the Hong Kong-bordering city has become an economic and tourist hub. Every listmaker from Shenzhen is a self-made billionaire, with its second-richest resident Hui Ka Yan working as a factory technician for ten years before founding one of China’s foremost real estate developers.

Frank Wang, who calls Seoul home, became the world’s first drone billionaire in 2016.

7. San Francisco 

Number of Billionaires: 42

Total Net Worth: $109,2 billion

Richest Resident: Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz, $11,1 billion.

The heart of America’s tech revolution, San Francisco is homebase for founders of Uber, Airbnb and Pinterest. The region’s influx of digital-age companies has made it the most expensive city in the U.S. (The entire Bay Area, including San Francisco and nearby cities, has 82 billionaires, still fewer than New York).

The only exception is PayPal’s co-founder and Trump enthusiast Peter Thiel, who moved to Los Angeles in 2018, reportedly for its greater political diversity.

I didn’t know Trump supporters valued diversity.

6. Shanghai

Number of Billionaires: 45

Total Net Worth: $110,7 billion

Richest Resident: E-commerce entrepreneur Colin Huang, $13,5 billion.

As ecommerce surges worldwide, so do fortunes like Huang’s, which is tied to internet retailer Pinduoduo. All those online-purchased items have created a massive package delivery market.

Shanghai, which also boasts the world’s biggest port, is home to four major package delivery companies, each with a pair each of billionaires.

5. London

Number of Billionaires: 55

Total Net Worth: $226 billion

Richest Resident: Russian bank founder Mikhail Fridman, $15 billion.

London, with more five star hotels than any other city, is a mecca for the uber rich. While 20 Brits call the cosmopolitan city home, 35 expatriate billionaires from 23 countries including India, Iceland and Russia have relocated to London.

That list includes two Ikea heirs, and four Russians, including Russia’s richest woman, Elena Baturina.

4. Beijing

Number of Billionaires: 61

Total Net Worth: $193,3 billion

Richest Resident: Commercial real estate titan Wang Jianlin, $22,6 billion.

Beijing is home to China’s two youngest billionaires, both products of the internet era: 33-year-old cryptocurrency miner Jihan Wu and 35-year-old ByteDance chair Zhang Yiming. The success of his $75 billion internet-era content creation hubhas launched Zhang from the city’s No. 13 to No. 2 richest in just a year.

He is only topped by Wang, whose fortune comes from real estate.

3. Moscow

Number of Billionaires: 71

Total Net Worth: $336,5 billion

Richest Resident: Natural gas oligarch Leonid Mikhelson, $24 billion.

This is the dodgiest list of billionaires ever:

Nearly 80% of all billionaires in Russia live in its capital, which is also its most populous city. Moscow is home to five billionaires sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in April 2018: suspected election meddler Oleg Deripaska, Michael Cohen-tied Viktor Vekselberg, legislative official Andrei Skoch, former Putin judo partner Arkady Rotenberg and trained economist Suleiman Kerimov.

Kerimov, also known as Russia’s ‘Great Gatsby’, faced money laundering charges in France that were dropped in June.

2. Hong Kong

Number of Billionaires: 70

Total Net Worth: $355,5 billion

Richest Resident: Conglomerate kingpin Li Ka-Shing, $31,7 billion.

Housing prices in the city have quadrupled since the Great Recession, thanks to its government’s tight grip on supply. The booming market has vaulted the fortunes of developers like Lee Shau Kee and Peter Woo, and 29 Hong Kong billionaires (and half of its top-ten richest) count real estate as their chief source of wealth.

That said, they’re anticipating a drop in property prices during 2019.

1. New York

Number of Billionaires: 84

Total Net Worth: $469,7 billion

Richest Resident: Media magnate Michael Bloomberg, $55,5 billion.

Some Big Apple billionaires were born and raised in New York, including Estee Lauder heir Ronald Lauder, JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon and Highbridge Capital cofounder Henry Swieca. Dimon and Swieca are two of 40 billionaires in the city whose fortunes were built in finance, the richest of whom is Carl Icahn, one of few hedge fund managers to make money in 2018.

Trump also lived in New York, but I’m sure New York doesn’t want to talk about that.

Anybody keen to analyse the wealth that can be found on the Atlantic Seaboard?

[source:forbes]