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Evergrande Group's chairman Xu Jiayin has become the world's richest real estate tycoon with a wealth of 37 billion U.S. dollars, the Hurun report announced on Wednesday.

Among the top 10 real estate billionaires, seven are Chinese — including Xu Jiayin, Li Ka-shing, Lee Shau Kee, Yang Huiyan, Wang Jianlin and his family, Henry Cheng Kar-shun and his family, and Joseph Lau Luen Hung and his family.

"The urbanization trend in China has driven the biggest wealth explosion in the history of world, with the result most of the world's largest real estate developers today come from China," said Hurun's chairman Rupert Hoogewerf.

However, nine of the top 10 billionaires' wealth decreased this year, except to Tos Chirathivat from Thailand and his family, whose wealth surged 73 percent year-on-year.

According to the latest Hurun global real estate rich list, China has 139 real estate billionaires with a combined net worth of 550 billion U.S. dollars, followed by the U.S. with 26 billionaires at a combined wealth of 110 billion U.S. dollars and the U.K. with 17 billionaires with 66 billion U.S. dollars combined.

Sun Hung Kai, Evergrande and Country Garden are the top 3 most valuable property developers in China, with market value of 47.8 billion U.S. dollars, 43.9 billion U.S. dollars and 31.3 billion U.S. dollars, respectively.

Email: wenqiao@nbd.com.cn