Zara proprietor, Amancio Ortega, has amassed the world’s largest real estate fortune. This finding is reported by Forbes, citing corporate filings, land registry data, press releases across nine nations, as well as information from the property databases Regrid and Real Capital Analytics.
The publication’s journalists scrutinized all this material to construct a “map of Ortega’s empire.” Forbes values the businessman’s entire property holdings at $25 billion, encompassing over 200 assets spread across 13 countries, the magazine notes. This positions Ortega as the foremost global real estate magnate, boasting a portfolio more valuable than those of highly successful developers like Australia’s Harry Triguboff (net worth $23.2 billion) and American Donald Bren ($19.2 billion), the article states.
Since Inditex, the parent company of Zara and the world’s largest clothing retailer, went public on the Madrid Stock Exchange in 2001, the 90-year-old Ortega has expended around $24 billion on 216 properties in nearly one hundred countries, Forbes writes. Almost all of these, according to the publication, remain under Ortega’s ownership; he has only divested ten assets. The total outlay by the entrepreneur in property assets surpasses the $20 billion that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos invested in his space venture, Blue Origin, Forbes points out.
Just last year, Ortega spent upwards of $3 billion on transactions spanning ten cities and eight countries, acquiring seven office buildings, two hotels, two industrial zones, a premier shopping complex, and an apartment building, alongside securing a 49% stake in a major British port operator, Forbes reports. Furthermore, he purchased the historic Canada Post building in Vancouver—a massive tech hub occupying an entire city block, featuring nearly 93,000 sq. meters of office space (subsequently leased to Amazon). This constituted the largest single office space sale in Canadian history; Ortega paid approximately $850 million cash for the property.
“He stands apart from many real estate investors because he appears to possess limitless funds. He favors assets not burdened by significant risk; he is not in the business of buying and flipping properties. He acquires trophy assets, the very best in class on the market—somewhat akin to a buyer of top-tier fine art,” a broker working with Ortega’s firm commented to Forbes.
Forbes estimates the Spanish entrepreneur’s total worth at $139.3 billion as of April 16th. This places him at number 13 on the publication’s ranking of the world’s wealthiest individuals.
About the Author
