HONG KONG: According to the results of a survey released by Citibank on Thursday, the number of multimillionaires in Hong Kong hit a record high last year, despite the city recording its worst recession on record because of the pandemic.

The survey showed that the number of multi-millionaires in Hong Kong has reached 515,000, up 2.18 per cent compared with the previous survey released in September last year. The number of multi-millionaires who were optimistic about the property market in the next 12 months was significantly higher than that in the last survey, rising from 7 per cent to 15 per cent, the survey said.

The survey also showed that under the Covid-19 epidemic, 25 per cent of the multi-millionaires reported an increase in their liquid assets compared with the end of 2019, with a median increase of 1 million HK dollars. Among them, 65 per cent said that the increase in liquid assets was mainly due to investment returns, with the majority of the increase gained from stocks.

A multi-millionaire is defined as a person with a total net worth of 10 million HK dollars (about USD1.28 million) or more and at least 1 million HK dollars in current assets, according to the bank..

The bank randomly interviewed over 4,000 Hong Kong residents aged between 21 and 79 via phone and calculated the number. The results showed that the net assets of the multi-millionaires mainly distributed in properties, accounting for 71 per cent.

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