Perth joins financial hubs in rarefied world of family offices

Number of family offices worldwide tripled between 2019 and 2023 to almost 4,600

Peppermint Grove, a suburb of Perth in Western Australia, has all the trappings you would expect of one of the wealthiest postal codes in the country: sprawling riverside mansions, exclusive schools and a yacht club.

But lately, there is a new sign that the Perth elite are starting to tip over the line separating the merely rich from the fabulously so. Glance in a real estate agent's window, and you will often see properties advertised with a telltale phrase: "Perfect for a family office." Financial hubs such as Dubai, London, New York and Singapore have long dominated the rarefied world of family offices outfits that typically cater to a single US$100 million-plus (over S$135 milllion) client with services that can include managing money, taxes, charitable donations and even household help.

Since 2019, as the rich get richer, the number of family offices worldwide has more than tripled, to almost 4,600 in 2023, according to investment data provider Preqin.

But the wealthy do not live only in global glamour cities. Family offices are now also popping up in places like Perth, on the coast of the Indian Ocean, 2,100km from Adelaide, the nearest major metropolitan area, and closer to Jakarta than Sydney.

After an almost two-decade-long mining boom, Perth, with a population of more than two million, has 64 centi-millionaires. This places it among the richest cities in the world by that measure, tied with Stockholm and ahead of Berlin and Dublin, according to data from citizenship consulting firm Henley & Partners.

Mr Andrew Forrest and his family top the list of the richest Australians, with a fortune of US$29.2 billion in mid-May, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He grew up in the outback and founded iron ore miner Fortescue, which is based in Perth.