Forbes estimated Larry Ellison was worth $USD 61.7b ($83.02b), meaning he would only need to spend 4.8 per cent of his fortune to buy himself an island full of homes. Photo / Getty Images
Forbes estimated Larry Ellison was worth $USD 61.7b ($83.02b), meaning he would only need to spend 4.8 per cent of his fortune to buy himself an island full of homes. Photo / Getty Images
It would take less than five per cent of Larry Ellison's multi-billion dollar fortune to buy all the residential properties on Waiheke Island.
Property data website Homes.co.nz analysed properties on the popular island destination and estimated its 3300 properties were worth a total $4b.
Forbes magazine estimated the American billionaire was worth $USD 61.6b ($82.9b), meaning he would only need to spend 4.8 per cent of his fortune to buy himself an island full of homes.
Last week it was revealed in the Herald on Sunday that representatives for Ellison and his yachting syndicate, Oracle Team USA, were looking for property in the Auckland area.
And while the billionaire, the seventh richest person in the world, has not yet bought, Homes.co.nz has done an analysis of what his estimated fortune could buy.
Chief marketing officer Jeremy O'Hanlon said Ellison could "comfortably take the whole of Waiheke Island as his holiday island, by spending less than a tenth of his wealth.
"That's assuming the entire Waiheke population were happy to jump ship, which you could comfortably doubt."
In reality only a small proportion of the island's properties would be on sale at any given time.
Currently on Trade Me's property section there were 125 Waiheke properties listed for sale.
Te Rere 205 Church Bay Road Waiheke Island marketed by Graham Wall Real Estate July 2017. Photo / Graham Wall Real Estate
Among the most expensive Waiheke properties listed on the site is a luxury pad at 205 Church Bay Rd.
The large lifestyle block has a capital valuation of $16 million, which Homes.co.nz data analysis indicated could go for as much as $27.9m.
It comes with a 6-acre vineyard that grows syrah, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and pinot gris and a self-contained guest house on the 34-acre land.
Back on the mainland, Ellison's wealth wouldn't quite stretch to buy all of Auckland city.
Homes.co.nz said the SuperCity had approximately 482,000 properties worth at total of $530b - more than six times Ellison's fortune.
The billionaire would have also needed to expend a significantly largely proportion of his wealth to buy Christchurch's 146,000 properties, which were worth a total of $70b.
But O'Hanlon said just how much the Oracle co-founder could buy did begin to put "into perspective the sheer size of the man's fortune".
The American billionaire's fortunate dwarfed that of the country's richest, with this year's most wealthy Graeme Hart estimated to have $7.5b worth of net assets - just nine per cent of the Oracle co-founder's estimated wealth.
Even the combined $80b worth of the country's richest, which was announced the National Business Review revealed on Monday, was a few billion short of the American billionaire's.
And while Hart could in theory also buy Waiheke island if he chose to transfer more than half his assets into the property market, the second on the list of the country's most wealthiest, newcomer American Peter Thiel's fortunes were not so big.
His total $3.7b did make him among New Zealand's most wealthy, but was a mere blip of Ellison's fortune and fell short of what he would need to buy Waiheke.
"This analysis of Homes Estimates is just a bit of fun, but does show just how small a country we are relative to the wealth in the world," said O'Hanlon.
Meanwhile the capital was estimated to have 69,000 properties worth a total $50b, Tauranga 51,000 properties at a total $35b and the Queenstown district had some 18,000 properties with an estimated worth of $20b.
The figures were a sum of the site's estimated values for each residential property, based on public record sales data and council property records, within the area specified.
Estimated total worth of all residential properties
