The number of Hongkongers with liquid assets of HK$10 million or more was up 14 per cent last year, a survey has found. But the study also showed that about one in 10 of them wanted to emigrate. The survey of 3,419 people, aged 21 to 79, was commissioned by Citibank and conducted by the University of Hong Kong's Social Sciences Research Centre from September last year to last month. It found that the number of millionaires, defined as having HK$1 million or more in liquid assets, such as stocks and bonds, went down slightly from 732,000 to 701,000. It means that 12 per cent of the city's adult population are millionaires. In contrast, the number of multimillionaires, defined by Citibank as those with HK$10 million or more in liquid assets, climbed 14 per cent to 56,000. "On average, multimillionaires expect to spend HK$70,000 a month when they retire," said Angel Ng, Citibank's head of retail banking. With life expectancy for men and women reaching 81 and 87 years respectively, Ng said even multimillionaires may struggle financially because they will need about HK$20 million on retirement to support such spending. In addition, the survey found that 11 per cent of multimillionaires were considering emigrating in the next five years. Canada stands out as the top emigration destination, chosen by 43 per cent of multimillionaires. Britain follows with 28 per cent, while the US, New Zealand, Taiwan and Australia are each chosen by 14 per cent. Respondents could choose more than one destination. Almost 40 per cent were dissatisfied with Hong Kong's education system, while 24 per cent were not happy with their living environment. The survey also found that 36 per cent of the multimillionaires had at least one child studying overseas and 29 per cent had at least one attending an international school in Hong Kong. Simon Lee Siu-po, a senior lecturer at Chinese University's school of accountancy, believed the jump in the number of multimillionaires was due to recent property investments. He also noted that more wealthy parents wanted to send their children abroad to study after last year's Occupy protests. "Last year, only 50,000 people visited Chinese University on its open day, down from 65,000 in 2013," he said. He said multimillionaires should keep a diversified investment portfolio so their money could last longer. "If you're a young multimillionaire you can be a bit more aggressive … If you are around 40 years old, I would suggest that you invest half of your money in stocks," he said. Professor Chou Kee-lee, head of the Institute of Education's department of Asian and policy studies, was not surprised that many wealthy people wanted to emigrate. "They can get a better living environment with less cost. They save a lot of money this way," he said.
