Toronto to get lots more rich people (but not as many as London)

Global real-estate consultancy Knight Frank doesn’t use the phrase “rich people” in its annual report on worldwide wealth distribution; it prefers the politically correct term “ultra-high-net-worth individuals,” or UHNWIs, an acronym as big and unwieldy as the bank accounts of the people it describes. According to the report, Toronto can expect a 23 per cent increase in its supply of these super-wealthy types over the next decade.

UHNWIs are defined as people with more than $30 million in net assets, and, according to Knight Frank, Toronto currently has 1,184 of them, putting it well ahead of any other Canadian city. (Montreal comes closest, with 520.) If that weren’t enough, the report projects that Toronto’s super-rich population will increase to 1,456 over the course of the next decade, meaning the arrivals of Nordstrom and Saks couldn’t have been better timed. Remember to stock a few hundred extra ultra-high-end handbags, guys.

Impressive though Toronto’s future UHNWI population may be, this city is, relatively speaking, but a drop in the jewel-encrusted Tiffany bucket. By the report’s reckoning, London currently has the biggest share of super-wealthy people, at 4,224—and that population is expected to grow to nearly 5,000 in ten years. The biggest increases in UHNWI populations are expected to occur in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.