Forget the rich list, here's Britains first spend list
Britain’s first ever Spend List is unveiled today, giving a fascinating look at how the financial elite spend their money, where they spend it and who spends the most. We already know what they’re worth, now we know who actually most enjoys their hard-earned cash!
The Virgin Money Spend List, compiled by Stewart Lansley, identifies a new league of ‘Mega Spenders’ – including Roman Abramovich and Philip Green - and ‘Super Spenders’ – including Posh & Becks, Madonna, Simon Cowell and, surprisingly, Cliff Richard.
And it shows they certainly do enjoy their money! Reportedly from £85 million penthouses to £4.6m earrings and £72m yachts to £30m weddings, the last few years have seen displays of spending power that outstrip even those shown in the famously flash 1920s and late Victorian era. Often, led by a rising demand from a growing band of mega-rich British-based foreign buyers from Russian oligarchs to new Asian billionaires.
But spending is not necessarily linked to wealth even for the super rich, with billionaires living modestly and millionaires living extravagantly. Virgin Money’s Jason Wyer-Smith comments, “It’s interesting to see that, the rich don’t necessarily spend according to their means. It’s not always how much they’ve got to spend but a matter of what they want to buy!”
As for many of us, it may be a case of keeping up with the ‘Jones’ – or rather the ‘Romans’ or ‘Greens’. There’s definitely some evidence of ‘competitive consumption’ amongst the super rich.
With yachts, there’s reportedly a rivalry amongst some members of the super-rich to outdo their counterparts, with one yacht not being enough. Abramovich has four, worth in excess of £200m, and even that is apparently insufficient: he has another ‘mega-yacht’ on order, which is rumoured to be even larger than Platinum owned by the Crown Prince of Dubai, which at 525ft, was designed to be the biggest private yacht in the world. At £100m, Ambramovich’s new yacht will be worth nearly as much as he paid for Chelsea FC.
Indeed, the chase to own the biggest yacht has, to the delight of the luxury yacht trade, led to a constant process of ‘leap-frogging’ whereby mega-yachts are getting bigger and ever-more luxurious every year. Larry Ellison of Oracle, deliberately ordered his yacht – Rising Sun – to be increased in size during construction to outdo Octopus, the yacht ordered by his arch-business rival, Paul Allen of Microsoft.
Meanwhile, hiring your own rock star to celebrate weddings and birthdays is an increasingly popular way of impressing your friends – and the world’s celebrity watchers. The lucky ones in this boom – rock stars like Mick Jagger, Beyoncé, Robbie Williams and Elton John (q.v.), are able as a result to stay amongst the world’s big spenders themselves.
As well as looking at some of Britain’s top spenders – many of whom spend on charity as well as luxury items - the Virgin Money Spend List also identifies some of the least conspicuous spenders.
For example, Sir Ken Morrison, the 73-year old chairman of the supermarket chain, and a near billionaire, has neither a private jet nor a chauffeur though he does run to a ten-bedroom chateau-style home in Yorkshire. And the world’s top ten billionaires, worth an average of £25bn each, have, apparently, relatively modest tastes in cars. None of them owns a Ferrari, a Bugatti or a BMW. While Bill Gates drives a Porsche, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad is content with a Volvo and the rest prefer Mazdas, Fords or Lincolns.
Jason Wyer-Smith adds, “Not many of us have the spending power of those in the Virgin Money Spend List but there are common traits whatever your bank balance or spending habits. It’s important to make sure you’re looking after your finances, whether that’s spending in the right way, saving for a must-have purchase or protecting your money.”
For more information and for all your spending, saving and protecting needs, go to www.virginmoney.com
The mega-spenders
| Name, age | Worth (2006 figure) | Made money via | Reportedly, spending includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roman Abramovich (39) | £10bn | Oil | - Chelsea FC: £140m
- Three yachts: £190m plus £100m gigayacht on order - Boeing 767: £56m - Country home: £18m |
| Aga Khan (69) | £1.25bn | Inheritance | - Three personal jets
- 600 racehorses - Priceless collections of jewels and antiques |
| Philip Green (55) | £4bn | Retail | - Gulfstream Jet: £27m
- Son’s bar mitzvah: £4m - 50th Birthday: £5m - Charity kiss with Kate Moss; £60,000 (donated to Jemima Goldsmith) |
| Lakshmi Mittal (56) | £15bn | Steel | - Family Home: £70m
- Second home: £15m - Daughter’s wedding: £30m |
| Bernie Eccleston (75) | £2.2bn | Motorsport | - Private Falcon Jet: £12m
- Yacht: £20m - House for his daughter: £800k |
| Mohamed Al-Fayed (73) | £430m | Retail | - Gulfstream Jet
- Four yachts – one currently on sale for £17m - 65,000 acre estate - St Tropez estate: £17m |
| Peter Cruddas (52) | £860m | Finance | - Home in Britain: £5m;
- Monte Carlo Apartment: £10m - £170K watch - Two Bentleys |
The super-spenders
| Name, age | Made money via | Reportedly, spending includes |
|---|---|---|
| David & Victoria Beckham (31,32) | Football, Music, Endorsement | - £2.6m on Beckingham Palace
- £500K on a limited edition watch - 15 cars, including £100K Lamborghini and £200K Ferrari |
| Elton John (59) | Music | - £6m Windsor Mansion
- £20m charity donations - £1.5 on his wedding |
| Madonna (47) | Music | - 1200 acre Wiltshire estate
- £7.5m London Townhouse |
| Catherine Zeta-Jones & Michael Douglas (37, 61) | Film | - £8m Aspen home
- £1.5m wedding |
| Urs Schwarzenbach (58) | Finance | - £35m Oxfordshire mansion
- £500K pa on his Black Bears polo team |
| Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber (58) | Musicals | - £14m townhouse
- £18m Picasso |
| Sir Tom Hunter (45) | Retail | - £750,000 celebrating his 40th birthday by hiring Stevie Wonder
- Lear Jet - Yacht called ‘Master Blaster' |
| Sir Paul McCartney (64) | Music | - At least £16m in properties
- And set to face a very costly divorce! |
| Simon Fuller (46) | Entertainment | - £350K Mercedes Maybach
- Holidays - Fine Wine |
| Jemima Khan (32) | Inheritance | - 9 bedroom Kensington home
- Winter breaks at £25,000 a week five-star Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados |
| Michael Spencer (51) | Finance | - Hired Robbie Williams for 50th birthday for £1m
- Art collection includes paintings by Picasso, Jack Vettriano and Lucien Freud |
| Simon Cowell (46) | Entertainment | - £7m townhouse in Holland Park
- £6m on J-Lo’s former Beverly Hills Mansion - Aston Martin, Rolls Royce Phantom, Bentley Arnage, Ferrari, Maybach - Christmas at £25,000 a week Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados |
| Arpad Busson (44) | Finance | - £10m home in Notting Hill
- Properties in the Bahamas and Switzerland |
| Sir Cliff Richard (65) | Music | - £4m mansion in Surrey
- £3m, six-bedroom secluded Sugar Hill estate in Barbados - Vineyard in the Algarve - Rolls Royce, a Mercedes convertible and a 1994 Bentley |
For more information and to request full report, contact: virginmoney@frankpr.it / 020 7693 6999
Notes to Editors:
- Stewart Lansley compiled the Virgin Money Spend List. He is the author of Rich Britain: The Rise and Rise of the Super-Wealthy and Top Man, the much-acclaimed biography of high street mogul Philip Green. He has held academic posts at the National
- Institute of Economic and Social Research, the Henley Centre and Brunel University and written for a variety of specialist and academic journals and newspapers.
- Viirgin Money is Virgin’s financial services arm and was established in 1995.
- Virgin Money has over two million customers and offers a wide range of financial products across lending (e.g. credit cards and personal loans), savings (e.g. deposits, investments and pensions) and protection (e.g. life insurance, home insurance and car insurance) to the UK market.
- Virgin Money Personal Financial Service Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Registered office: Discovery House, Whiting Road, Norwich NR4 6EJ. Registered in England No. 3072766. Entered on the Financial Services Authority's register number 179271.
Virgin Money Spend List Overview
The List also offers in-depth information, statistics and top ten lists on ‘must-have’ items for Mega Spenders and Super Spender, including:
Property
London’s leading estate agents report that the number of clients able to pay cash for properties of £5 and £10m plus has been rising sharply. The UK boasts 6 out of ten of the most expensive properties currently on sale in Europe, while 3 are in France and one in Spain. London estate agent, Knight Frank, estimates that of properties costing more than £8m, 40% are bought by British buyers, a fifth by Russians and 10% by buyers from the Middle East.
Private Jets
Meanwhile, the demand for private jets is now so high that manufacturers are turning customers away because their order books are full for years ahead. The son of Lakshmi Mittal recently had to settle for a second hand Global Express! Joining the private jet club requires an initial outlay of, for example, some £13m for a Dessault Falcon 2000 to as much as £40m for the next generation Challenger 605, the first due to be delivered in late 2007. Then there are the annual running costs of well over a million pounds.
Cars and luxuries
Waiting lists for the world’s most exclusive luxuries are soaring. If you want an exclusive £500,000 plus watch, the wait is up to 3 years; the wait for the Aston Martin AMV8 – the car used by Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day – is also 3 years. Such is the demand for the Bugatti Veyron which carries the caché of the most expensive and fastest car on the road, that an unofficial ‘grey market` is said to have developed in which places on the waiting list are changing hands for tens of thousands of pounds.
Art
The explosion in the number and size of personal fortunes in the last decade is also driving prices for contemporary artists such as Francis Bacon as well as Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, Picassos and American Expressionists to record heights, with sale prices often greatly exceeding the reserve price. In 2006, a mystery buyer paid £49.5m at Sotheby’s in New York for Picasso’s 1941 painting Dora Maar au Chat, roughly double what experts felt the painting was worth. In 2006, no less than 810 works sold for more than a million dollars compared with 487 the year before.
Super Yachts
After the private jet, the super-yacht is the next ultimate indulgence, and one that brings immense social cachet. Such is the growing phenomenon of ‘competitive consumption’ - a process of rivalry amongst some members of the super-rich to outdo their counterparts, that one is increasingly not enough. Abramovich has four, worth in excess of £200m, and even that is apparently insufficient: he has another ‘mega-yacht` on order, which is rumoured to be even larger than Platinum owned by the Crown Prince of Dubai, which at 525ft, was designed to be the biggest private yacht in the world. Indeed, the chase to own the biggest yacht has, to the delight of the luxury yacht trade, led to a constant process of ‘leap-frogging’ whereby mega-yachts are getting bigger and ever-more luxurious every year. Larry Ellison of Oracle, deliberately ordered his yacht – Rising Sun – to be increased in size during construction to outdo Octopus, the yacht ordered by his arch-business rival, Paul Allen of Microsoft.
