With the booming real estate market, China's biggest property developer Xu Jiayin (许家印), the chairman of Guangzhou-based property giant Evergrande, has been named the wealthiest man in China. Remarkably, his wealth has quadrupled after he made $30 billion in just six months. According to this year's China Rich List, released annually by the Hurun Report, Xu, who is also known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese, is now worth $43 billion.

Second on the list is Pony Ma ($37 billion), the Tencent CEO, followed by Jack Ma ($30 billion), Alibaba CEO,  Yang Huiyan ($24 billion), the 36-year-old Country Garden heiress, Wang Jianlin ($23 billion), Dalian Wanda CEO and Wang Wei ($22 billion), SF Express Chairman. Yang and Wang Wei are new additions to the top 10 list this year.

Hurun reports that a rough summer for China's former richest man, Wang Jianlin saw his wealth take a 28 percent hit.

Hurun explains that although Alibaba's stocks have skyrocketed, Jack Ma's wealth remains the same as he reduced his ownership in Ant Financial from 35.5 percent last year to 1.2 percent this year. That explains the number of Ant Financial shareholders making this year's Rich list.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index has found different outcomes on its list. It finds Jack Ma on top ($46.7 billion), followed by Xu Jiayin ($37.5 billion), Pony Ma ($35.8 billion), Wang Jianlin ($28.2 billion), Yang Huiyan ($20.4 billion), Wang Wei ($18.7 billion) and Baidu CEO Robin Li ($18.4 billion).

Bloomberg also notes that Xu Jiayin has made $30 billion this year, but as his fortune is built on debt in China's volatile real estate market, if the bubble bursts, he may lose much of his money.

Hurun says that there are 53 new billionaires this year, totalling at least 647 billionaires in mainland China, up from only 396 five years ago. And there are 2,130 individuals in mainland China who have a total wealth of around $300 million. Their total wealth adds up to $2.6 trillion, which is around the same as the GDP of the United Kingdom.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun founder, says there are many more multimillionaires China, but they hide their wealth at home or even overseas. “For every one we have found, we estimate there to be two that we have missed,” Hoogewerf said.

Sources: Hurun Report

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