How Much Of The UK Could US Billionaires Afford To Buy?

Boasting a Gross Domestic Product calculated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of more than $16 trillion, the United States is by far the single biggest-spending country in the world. A number of factors figure into the sum, including population size and average salary.

According to the billionaires list published annually by Forbes, 492 citizens of the U.S. are billionaires — at least in U.S. dollars. That’s almost 500 people, way more than the nearest rival, which claims a relatively paltry 152.

In fact, starting with second-place China, you would have to go all the way down to number seven — the United Kingdom with 47 — to exceed the total number of billionaires who live in the U.S.

In the UK, On Stride produced some pretty interesting research based on the nation’s Elite set using data from the UK’s Land Registry and House Price Index, plus some stats on the local billionaires’ net worth. On Stride calculated just how much of their own hometowns the most wealthy Britons could afford to buy.

While the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, James Dyson, could suck up 3 percent of Kensington and Chelsea, Richard Branson could buy almost 8,000 houses in Lewisham — with an estimated £6.45 billion between them.

Using the data provided on house prices and populations in England, Scotland, and Wales, here’s how the numbers would look if a few of our best-known billionaires were to go shopping in the UK.

Bill Gates

The co-founder of Microsoft is worth nearly $80 billion. That’s an awful lot of copies of Windows!

Gates made his first billion at the age of 31. Since stepping down from his full-time role at the top of the company, Gates has worked hard to promote worthy causes through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In terms of UK cities and regions, it’s not so much a question of which cities Gates can afford to buy, as how many multiple times he can afford some of them. In the Greater London area, where the average house price is £442,711, Gates’ $46.8 billion Great British Pounds would get him about 3 percent of the region — or well over 100,000 homes.

Gates’ potential stranglehold in other areas would be considerably tighter if he decided to invest in UK real estate. However, if he were to pool his wealth with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the total would climb over $100 billion — enough to cover the cost of Birmingham, plus enough left over for a controlling stake in Manchester of 61 percent.

Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp in February indicated that owner Mark Zuckerberg has a keen eye for investment. With the man being worth an estimated $29.8 billion this year, Zuckerberg could have his pick of the property across the pond.

As of the time of research, there were 285,984 households in Glasgow — and with an average price of £120,442 per house, the Facebook founder could stake his claim on almost 51 percent of the city’s homes if he were to spend his fortune on them.

If Zuckerberg could scrape up just a couple billion more — perhaps if he were to scour beneath the sofa cushions — he’d be able to assume full control of Manchester. The money he spent on the purchase of WhatsApp might have been put to better use by acquiring the entire city of Liverpool.

That would have given Zuckerberg a tidy bit of change with which he could’ve bought more than half the homes in Cardiff.

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett, 83, is known as one of the shrewdest investors ever. “The Oracle of Omaha” has been known for his uncanny ability to buy and sell even from an early age, when he put his wages for a paper route into various investments and made big money.

With property prices fluctuating as they do these days, we don’t foresee Buffett putting his money down on any big-city purchases any time soon. However, his own personal stash of about $8.5 billion is more than enough to buy a quarter of the homes in East Riding, Yorkshire — or, averaging a shade under $180,000 per house, one-third of Wakefield.

Either way, Buffett could get a good foothold in the North of England with a purchase like that. Buffett has pledged to give away 99 percent of his wealth by the time he passes on; even the amount left over would be enough to buy more than 100 homes in Greater London.

The UK property market may be recovering nicely from the economic crisis experienced in the mid-noughties, and the data provided makes for some interesting speculation when you consider how U.S. billionaires might get on in that market.

[Photo credit: OnInnovation / Flickr]