THE Balearics cannot complain too much about not attracting enough wealthy visitors: a group of Britain's wealthiest people worth over £18 billion either own homes on the island or regularly come to play here during the summer.
The 2005 Sunday Times Rich List reveals a healthy and wealthy relation between Majorca and Britain with multi-million pounds superyachts and luxury villas belonging to some of the country's richest people.
Topping the list of home owners is publisher Richard Desmond. The 53-year-old owner of the Express Group of newspapers has a front-line but secluded home in Formentor, and he is worth a cool £1'300 million.
The richest players are the Bhs and Arcadia retail king and queen Philip and Christina Green (£4'850 million) who are regular visitors on his superyacht, Sir Richard Branson (£3 billion), Lord Sainsbury and family (£1'710 million) who keep their yacht Fair Lady in Majorca and the Barclay brothers (£1'200 million) who also keep a superyacht based in Palma.
Last year with the arrival of Lord Lloyd-Webber (£700 million) who bought a property in Deya, the British bank-balance in Majorca grew substantially.
John Hargreaves and family (£730 million) who own the Matalan chain of stores, have two adjacent properties on the island and youngest son Jamie, romantically linked with Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, recently spent £10 million on purchasing the Portals-based superyacht Philante and its huge mooring.
Just along the coast, the double glazing and property millionaire Brian Kennedy (£208 million) has recently purchased the historic Illetas fort. Home, however is a luxury property in Son Vida and he keeps a multi-million pound yacht in Puerto Portals.
The two Festival Park developers, the Morgan and Thomas families, are worth £100 million and £208 million respectively while Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas are worth £170 million and are Britain's ninth richest husband and wife, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
One of Britain's leading private commercial property developers, Grahame Whateley (£200 million), also lives in a prime front line property in the west of the island. Nearby, lives former Manchester United Chairman Martin Edwards.
Eddie George, member of the Weetabix empire, sold in 2003 for £642 million, owns a property in the north east of the island while Joe Moore (£100 million), founder of the Yorkshire-based WMS Group which designs and distributes window and door hardware, lives in the Calvia area and is a very active fund raiser on the island.
Add together the total worth of the confirmed players and home-owners in Majorca and they are worth over £18 billion... not a bad balance for Majorca.
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