NBR Rich List
NBR have their rich list out today. The Herald has a preview:
- Graeme Hart $2.75b
- Todd family $2.6b
- Eamon Cleary $2.1b
- Christopher and Richard Chandler $2.0b each
- Goodman family $1.8b
- Stephen Jennings $1.0b
- Erceg family $700m
- Douglas Myers $700m
- Sir Michael Fay $660m
- David Richwhite $660m
The threshold for inclusion has doubled this year from $25m to $50m, with a note that almost anyone who owns a house in inner Auckland or Wellington is by definition a millionaire now.
Best success story is 38 year old Don Ha who moved here as an 11 year old penniless refugee in 1980 and is now worth $60 million.
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Tags: New Zealand
August 17th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Their $ worth is only 1/2 of the equation. Graeme Hart: buy> $ack> $ell. Don Ha, Eaomon Cleary > immigrants > the population increased 21% between 1990 and 2004…. land liquidators. How many little people got a raw deal from the hardend property investor real estate agent (Mae Young) combination? Anyone seen Queenstown lately… . Stephen Jennings> bought up assets in the former Soviet Union> the locals weren’t investment bankers and hadn’t worked in treasury while state owned assets were being privatised.
Every unearned asset in real esate (or the sharemarket) creates a hole that has to be used…. hows the rent? hows the mortgage?
jh
August 17th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Good to see our rentier class doing well, but there is trouble on the horizon for the assorted rack renters, crony capitalists and landlords who pass as our elite. The global reef fish are in meltdown as their wanton property speculation comes home to roost – and soon the public will start demanding the reforms that are needed to reign in the obscene wealth of our own Pinochetista class.
August 17th, 2007 at 8:33 am
The heroes are the people who work hard and actually earn all the money, not these tossers. hard working honest ma and pa are the best role models for the kids, except the leeches at each end of the sociaeconomic spectrum have us conned into laughing at hard working honest people.
August 17th, 2007 at 8:36 am
The elite of this country are the political trough feeding leeches who live of everyone’s hard work TomS and you support them. What a screwed up country eh?
August 17th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Please re format the list to show those that re;
A: Single
B: of looks bearable enoug to no want to vomit on sight
August 17th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Can’t say any of them would entice me out of the closet.
August 17th, 2007 at 8:54 am
Ooooo that would be nice TomS wouldn’t it? To see lots of rich people become poor. Because rich people are happy when they really deserve to be poor and sad like everyone else. What bollocks.
There is no question that some super-rich folks got there by stepping in the faces of others, but for others it was through hard work. The kind of hard work we need more of in NZ.
IMHO there are vastly more people in NZ who would benefit from a can-do and hard-work ethic that there are those who need to have their unethical gains removed.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Will they all be getting threatening letters from Labour if they dare donate money to another party?
August 17th, 2007 at 9:11 am
Jealousy is a cruel mistress
August 17th, 2007 at 9:21 am
watch a sickening bunch of jealous wankers. Want more? Work harder and smarter.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Will Mr Winston Peters lash out at this list, since Fay & Richwhite are on it? Maybe revoke their standing on the rich list as well as try and remove their citizenship?
I wouldnt be surprised if he did say something like that to be honest
August 17th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Corruption and greed are cruel masters
August 17th, 2007 at 9:28 am
“watch a sickening bunch of jealous wankers. Want more? Work harder and smarter.”
Lets let society generate to the level of the lowest, dirtiest rat?
August 17th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Lowest dirtiest rat!
What next? Vast international conspiracy by the man? All rich people drink babies blood? It must be the Jews?
Get over yourselves, the politics of envy grows in fertile ground amongst the whiny want mores who lack the wit to go and get it for themselves in this country.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Why is it that when I see our rich list accumulating such wealth, I feel admiration? Oh that’s right, I’m only first generation Kiwi of decent stock and haven’t been tarred with the nasty brush.
And to all the loonie lazy labour lefties, your own Government tops the rich list in wealth generation (over taxing for the really stupid ones) and you think that’s okay. The difference is that our rich list INVEST their wealth, yours PISSES it down the shiter.
I knew this topic would expose all the morons.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Actually, if this rich list is an elitist hall of shame perhaps we could bring some balance from the other end of the wealth continuum by publishing a list of:-
- the people who MSD phone every day to get them out of bed and off to the job that was arranged for them (many simply sleep thru, fail to show and go back on the benefit)
- the people who have dropped out of state-funded training courses for ‘at risk’ youth (.. and go back on the benefit)
- the people who are 3rd, 4th or 5th generation welfare dependents (and have never broken the cycle despite billions of dollars of targeted taxpayer assistance)
Do this and we can all express outrage at the lack of backbone by the many in this and the few in the rich list
August 17th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Every unearned dollar made in real estate creates a hole that has to be filled.
We are all supposedly stakeholders in the NZ nation, who said we want the population to increase by 21 % (1990 to 2004)….who benefited? who held overseas seminars promoting our cheap coastal properties and generous tax system (for property investors)?
etc, etc
August 17th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Fedup and Krazykiwi you have good points. I would dearly love to see a list of the top 100 beneficiary earners once the accomodation allowance, state house, supplementary payments and work while on benefit is factored in. We will never ever see that because the government would have to get the army out to control the riots.
BUT there is a big difference between the lazy parasites screaming hrd done by and wanting to tax middle income earers to buggery to pay for their p-labs and the leeches at the other end of the scale who accumulated hundreds of millions in one lifetime. It simply is not possible to earn that sort of money in a lifetime no matter what Tom Cruise says.
jh please please please tell me that they didnt do that, please, you are joking right?
August 17th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Toms “Good to see our rentier class doing well, but there is trouble on the horizon for the assorted rack renters, crony capitalists and landlords who pass as our elite.”
So how many houses does Helen Klark own Tom?
August 17th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Dlof DeRoos held seminars in the US where he waxed lyrical about about our cheap coastal property, extremely generous tax laws, no capital gains etc. I have heard of seminars in Asia as well. I haven’t seen much in the media, they are too busy drooling over the latest Porche bought by a property developer. The citizen is worth nothing, the community is worth nothing.
jh
August 17th, 2007 at 10:39 am
I wouldn’t have a problem with a Kiwi having as much money as Bill Gates. I think people who create jobs deserve to be rich. And we should be proud of them. The name that stands out for me from that top 10 is Erceg. And there’s many others on the list like Jan Cameron who have actually created something.
However I’m not so sure about those who made their money by other means. Hart, the Chandlers, Jennings are all self-made men, which is commendable. But rather than being creators they simply make things more efficient. Don’t get me wrong, people like these are vital for healthy economies, and deserve rewards for their success. But perhaps I wonder if they should be as rich as they are. For me they are not as valuable as the creators.
I have a bigger issue with people who’ve made their money in property. What have they actually done for the country? They got in when property was far cheaper (in terms of incomes) than it is today. They almost seem to be being rewarded for being born earlier than other people. (And so this complaint is from the youth of today rather than from their contemporaries.)
I also think to some extent the 2nd and 3rd categories have been lucky. There are many people who work as hard (or harder) than them, but have not had the breaks go there way and will never have a fraction of these people’s wealth. This isn’t really a complaint though, it’s the way of the world.
But it would be great if people looking at this list and wanting to be rich concentrated on creating something rather than investing in unproductive areas.
August 17th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Every year the rich list is inevitably followed by a storm of communist jealousy and vitriol.
Why not celebrate these entrepreneurs and deal-makers?
August 17th, 2007 at 10:58 am
“But it would be great if people looking at this list and wanting to be rich concentrated on creating something rather than investing in unproductive areas”
I absolutely agree. But sadly there are those that believe the socialist dogma, that there is a fixed quantity of wealth out there and it’s the State’s roles to control it for re-distribution
August 17th, 2007 at 11:01 am
krazykiwi – So what happens to the productivity gains? They just vanish into thin air?
August 17th, 2007 at 11:04 am
JG, because they’re not? Every other hard working sod is doing the job for them.
jh it is filth that we have fueled our house of cards economy in this way. What a joke because a few baby boomers panicked bout their retirement. Its come back to bite us on the bum – the “polcy analysts” didn’t see that one comming.
August 17th, 2007 at 11:07 am
So what do you propose Porcupine? Everyone in the country works 40 hours a week for $10 an hour, and no more? Noone is entitled to profit from anything?
August 17th, 2007 at 11:07 am
“Why not celebrate these entrepreneurs and deal-makers?”
sorry JG my reply was to this.
Think about it, who is the entrepreneur – Tom Cruise or his agent.
Who has given you the great special effects movies we love to watch – the actors or the scientists and technicians. Wakey wakey!
August 17th, 2007 at 11:11 am
I don’t favour regulating for it – its got to come from the people. Join together and bump the leeches of their perches. I thought thats what the 80s was all about but now we’ve ended up with overregulation and a punitive tax system on middle income earners that ensures they will stay where theyh are put once and for all, bloody upstarts that’ll teach them for questioning us who would be kings and queens.
August 17th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Pokypine : heh you are trying to top sonic with your pathetic comments, eh? Politics of envy showing in everything you type, as well as a chronic non-understanding of how the world works. Of course we’d all be so much better off if the country was full of losers like you, right? Who the fuck do you think pays for your benefits, tosspot?
August 17th, 2007 at 11:14 am
I think we probably agree with each other in a roundabout way.
Take Don Ha, for example, through hard work and determination (and obviously a natural talent for sales) he’s made himself rich. If he can, anyone can.
August 17th, 2007 at 11:19 am
All the wankers here such as TomS who are anti-wealth (inlcuding Sonic, Selma), should go and wank more in a corner where no one could see you. I suspect that you would direct the same hatred towards very successful wealth creators as Brin & Page (Google founders), despite you fuckers using their search engine all the time for free of charge.
August 17th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
“Why not celebrate these entrepreneurs and deal-makers?”
Why not analyse their worth to society other than the narrow position of how wealthy they are.
“I suspect that you would direct the same hatred towards very successful wealth creators as Brin & Page (Google founders),”
Wealth creaters? An honor the property investment fraternity hoist upon themselves
August 17th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
crikey.
You’re obviously stupid as well as ignorant. Did you not read the comment that Porc made above yours? I honestly couldn’t give a crap about how rich these people are as our money ain’t worth the paper its printed on, well there is precious little paper money available in any case, only 3 percent of the money supply, the rest is merely “illusionary” bits and bytes on the banks’ computer systems.
I one how much of the increase in GDP is a result of productive investment? I’d say mostly its government spending and the artificial inflation of the values in the housing market. I reckon we’d see a more real reflection of actual inflation if they included housing in the CPI, but the powers that be wouldn’t be able to pat themselves on the back for the “success” of the economy thanks to the real estate “industry”.
August 17th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
You rightie defenders of the superwealthy fall into the same trap you rail against theleft for doing – attacking the messenger, not the message. I am not jealous of the superwealthy and I consider them to be beneath the hard working New Zealanders on the usefulness scale mainly. Hard working New Zealanders pay for our politician’s windmills, not these people – that’s why Cullen wont give us a tax break.
I fully understand how the world works – I want to vote for a phased in change of how our country interacts with it. National is the party that keeps on saying it wants to put more money in the pockets of hard working NZers. Are they lying??
August 17th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
“Politics of envy showing in everything you type, as well as a chronic non-understanding of how the world works.”
You could start by explaining how property investors are wealth creators.
August 17th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
The “Khordokovsky approach”, anyone?
August 17th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
OMG get over yourselves, the most important point is
Are any of tham shagable?
August 17th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Only a princess gets to shag the born to rule deary.
August 17th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
so many ofyou are simply jealous gits.
I bet that every single person that hates the rich-listers has never been in business themselves, or if they have they will be small and very useless ones. I bet you they are all employees or similar (there is nothign wrong with being an employee of course but without being in business you will never understand wealth and how it is attained).
how do you get your income jh?
August 17th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Oh well at least we’re 2 dimensional – your just a git.
I’m both employee and employer vto.
“they will be small and very useless ones” Arraogant little tit – small efficient businesses are the backbone of the country, except the government treats them like to be the cannon fodder of the collectivist cause.
If it wasn’t for them ther ichies would have to pay a lot more for their lattes and roads to speed in their mercs and parade around like friging kings. Shall we mention some of the criminal rich? Oh no we cant they’ve paid good money for those suppresion orders. Tosser.
August 17th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
vto Says:
August 17th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
how do you get your income jh?
I work, and while someone like Bob Jones may have referred to someone like me as “one of the little people who hasn’t done anything”, I wonder if the overall benefit, to society, of some of those on the rich list is (all in all) negative; they have simply acquired wealth at others people expense?
August 17th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Just part of the rich tapestry of life Like the poor the rich are also amongst us Rejoice people Caste off your hatred and be happy for them and aim to become rich not only in money but in all that life can offer. Its better than the alternative.
August 17th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
gd.
I don’t hate them mate. I couldn’t give a toss at how many zeros that they have in their bank accounts, but to have them paraded around like some kind of heroes just gets to me, especially since I’m unlikely to be able to afford a house until I’ve got grey in my hair, cos of them and I’m only 24.
It just seems like theres a conspiracy between the Latte/Chardonnay pseudo-socialists in government and councils and the banking and property owning elites to defraud us of our money whilst rubbing it in our faces how much “better” they are than us. I don’t begrudge people who’ve made money as long as its not at my expense and you can’t honestly tell me that making money in banking and property isn’t at my expense.
August 17th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
The names that have contributed most to the human race don’t come from the rich list. The hard working people fo the country cote in governments to look after their interests while they a busy, …well…, working! and keeping the country going. The government then shafts them by increasing the house prices from 3 years gross average wages to 10 years gross average wage, and we’re all expected to sit around and take it. What a joke this country has become. Anywhere else it would be pass the smoke bombs and manure please…
August 17th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Sorry Porcupine, my comment was meant as a wind up. I commend all small businesses of course.
I just cant stand jealously – especially ignorant jealously. Or the theory that the rich only got there at someone else’s expense – patent b.s.
My point was that those that hate the rich have no experience of wealth or how it is attained. They have never done it or even tried to do it.
As I said I bet every ‘rich-hater’ will be speaking from no experience and will have never been in business. Well almost every probably – I’m sure there will be one out there to prove me wrong.
It also has nothing to do with the largest contributions to the human race – two totally different issues.
August 17th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
“I just cant stand jealously – especially ignorant jealously. Or the theory that the rich only got there at someone else’s expense – patent b.s.”
I think you could argue that in the case of property investors, assuming it is true that every unearned dollar made in real estate investment creates a hole that has to be filled.
“As I said I bet every ‘rich-hater’ will be speaking from no experience and will have never been in business. Well almost every probably – I’m sure there will be one out there to prove me wrong.”
There are plenty of “How To” real estate books, and when you dig deeper you find the dirty tricks eg lining up with a corrupt real estate agent who spots dummies for an investor and gets a kickback.
August 17th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
I agree that simple buy and sell real estate style property investors don’t do much for the economy and often don’t pay their fair share of tax – but these people are hardly likely to make the rich list.
The people above all seem to be involved with businesses that actually do something. I think people like Sam Morgan (who must be on the rich list a bit further down) are a great example of how hard work and persistence with a good idea can create wealth.
August 18th, 2007 at 12:08 am
The vast majority of the rich have gotten rich by employing lots of people but not paying their employees nearly as much as what the employees produce in profit. It’s a form of arbitrage and it’s a form of abuse, in my opinion. I’m certainly not jealous of these people on the list, but I just feel that they’ve made their money by exploitation. However, a lot of brainwashed capitalists don’t seem to understand this and keep on ranting on about how rich people are heroes because they’ve created jobs. Well, it SHOULD be obvious that if many of them didn’t create jobs, then they wouldn’t be rich. They have gotten rich off of other people’s hard work. This is how our society operates and it’s disgusting.
August 18th, 2007 at 3:11 am
People on the rich list are to be congratulated, not berated by the perennial losers from the Left.
Long live capitalism and freedom of choice.
August 18th, 2007 at 6:03 am
Long live our porous borders, lack of vision and government duplicity, with out which the real estate magnates would be working for a living.
Lets not forget the corpses in the big property investors web.
August 18th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Jane, don’t believe everything you read.
August 18th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Jane, I suggest you go visit North Korea to see the socialist paradise there.
August 18th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
“Long live our porous borders, lack of vision and government duplicity, with out which the real estate magnates would be working for a living.”
Jh how do you know that property magnates don’t work for a living? Have you ever worked in the real estate industry. Do you know the living hell theat a property developer goes through dealing with a dozen building contractors while having to jump through RMA hoops set up up selfserving council bureaucracies while having to beg for money from banks while trying to keep costs down to you can actually make a profit and keep you’re own equity intact? Or have you ever been a residential landlord who’s tenant has just bailed on you leaving the rent in arreas after using your house as a p-lab/party pad with extensive cleanup costs while facing yet another interest rate rise? Probably not because you’re happy sitting behind a desk shuffling papers and buying crap off trademe.
The bottom line is that you will get nothing because you risk nothing and as Shakespare said “nothing becomes of nothing”
By your own admission jh you’re “one of the little people who hasn’t done anything” by virtue of the fact that you cannot get past your own envy of other people’ accomplishments which is a really sad thing to see. It’s your choice to be a perennial loser or not, nobody elses.
“The vast majority of the rich have gotten rich by employing lots of people but not paying their employees nearly as much as what the employees produce in profit. It’s a form of arbitrage and it’s a form of abuse”
Jane – Last time I looked there were literally tens of millions of people trying to get into western capitalists states attempting to be abused. What does it tell you about socialist states like cuba when people are prepared to risk death by attempting to sail in tyres over shark infested waters to work in the America for minimum wage.
You don’t get paid as as much as you produce in profit because you don’t invest any equity in a business to deserve as much. Which scenario would you rather choose a) getting the wage that you are getting now; or b) having half your annual salary being forcibly invested in a business with the return being tied up with profitabilitywhere you could either do very well very badly. i guess life as a salaried employee isn’t looking too bad now is it?
August 18th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
vto – “My point was that those that hate the rich have no experience of wealth or how it is attained. They have never done it or even tried to do it.
As I said I bet every ‘rich-hater’ will be speaking from no experience and will have never been in business. ”
…. well I’m waiting to be proved wrong … Still no people with experience disagreeing with what I said. Outline your experience Jane …
The ‘rich-haters’ are indedd speaking from a complete lack of knowledge. Ignorant jealousy.
August 18th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I except your point about the difficulties property developers have and taking risks, but I don’t see why one should have to be a property investor or developer to not be considered a “perennial loser”. It is the government that decided we need to increase the population 21% (1990 to 2004). As a consequence we have the mess that is Queenstown (for example), and suburbs where every other house is cut in half and the result is such that the sum is less than its parts, coastal property is no longer affordable. In short, this used to be a much better country to live in. Government policies have favoured property investors (tax), developers (immigration) and real estate agents (lack of regulation).
I remember, a long while back discussing someone who bought houses, did them up and sold them. My friend remarked that people who did that sort of thing were crass. A strange remark, but I believe it stems from our evolutionary roots: it is crass to buy and sell the nieghbour hood, since we evolved in societies where we all nurtured one another.. Like wise, when the food is set out at a wedding we don’t barge in and hog it all . A lot of property investors are just trying to stay ahead, but some of the more voracious ones to many people appear like nothing but vermin. What a lot of people in our community lack are Scruples and Values (fortunately the wealthiest can afford the services of a PR company to tone down the pong)
As far as the rich list goes “rich hater/ rich lover” are two sides of the same coin.
August 19th, 2007 at 7:18 am
My goodness – so much of the Tall Poppy Syndrome condensed in one place! The stench of small minds and small wallets is making my head spin.
August 19th, 2007 at 8:37 am
It depends how you measure the poppy, Dr Fred Hollows or Dr… the how to do it get rich property investor > [lesson #9 How I choose a real estate agent... to find me property's 30% below value].
August 19th, 2007 at 8:43 am
I was walking back down Mt Roy in Wanaka one day and I met an old American geologist, who had lived here for 30 years; he said we are “ruining this country”. He had looked around the world for a place to move to that fitted his criteria and chose [ ].
August 19th, 2007 at 9:11 am
It is not the goodwill of the baker that puts bread on a
man’s table. Thank god. Otherwise, we’d all go hungry.
Nor does the busboy bus for the benefit of mankind.
Instead, everyone schleps, humps, sweats and toils for
reasons of his own.
This insight – that people can pursue their own
interests, and in so doing improve the lot of everyone –
is the central insight of modern economists,
…
But now, what’s this? A new bunch of kings has taken its
place in Greenwich, dressed in perma-pressed khaki pants
with blue, open-collared shirts. They are richer and
busier than any group of bees the honey-pot nation has
every produced. Still, don’t bother to look for their
last names on your refrigerator, or on your armchair, or
even on your liquor bottles.
http://www.dailyreckoning.co.uk/article/citytradersthenewhighwaymen0018.html
August 19th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
THE three former owners of Arrowtown’s decaying historic cottages were outraged to find their homes snapped up anonymously by millionaire Irish property magnate Eamon Cleary – two were flatly told he was not the buyer.
http://www.scene.co.nz/cms/save_cottages/2007/01/art1000551.php
August 19th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
As well as the decline in the dollar has anyone noticed the decline in the perception of worthiness of the average citizen> I blame consumerism, Satchi and Satchi ,Helen Clarke, TV One, courses in Richmastery, and the Fairlie Fire Brigade.
August 19th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
good on ya jh (not). a troll through your posts paints a picture of your mind. It aint pretty – it’s ugly.
and you still haven’t proved me wrong. You are a rich-hater. Are you rich? Have you ever attained some wealth yourself (and hence know how it works)? or made a serious attempt at it?
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:07 am
vto, it is great what the rich do, they are very clever, but it isn’t all about them. Sometimes the rich are rainmakers and sometimes we need protecting from the rich (or wanna be rich). A world with limited resources means if someone has too much, someone misses out (back in the 1890′s the liberals broke up the great estates). What is most important is that as many people as possible prosper.. Not everyone shares your values… do you think you or Eamon Cleary are better than the Amish for instance..? It’s a moot point.
[Serfdom has been tried and it didn't work.... ]
jh
July 24th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
unpclesbian: the answer is yes.
October 31st, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Thumbs up for the successful people named! My partner and I had met most them. They all share the same attribute in life. They are positive, interesting, smart and hard working. They are an inspiration to small investors like us, we should be learning from them rather than being jealous!
The likes of Don Ha, Eamon Clearys are extra ordinarly, they did not come from a rich family, did not even have a proper education but yet they make it in life.
Others like David Richwhite, The Todd family, Mae Young, Michael Fay, they are well educated, intelligent, successful but yet so humble.
They are certainly an inspiration to us. Whenever my partner and I have a chance to attend common functions with them, I make sure that I listen and learn from them. I would keep my positive attitude and keep learning, hopefully one day I will make it to the rich list.
Thank you. John