The slide in global estate markets has wiped out £15bn (€19.3bn) from the wealth of the UK's and Ireland's 500 richest in property, with the most highly leveraged investors among the biggest victims, an annual survey has found. However, while the signs are that the losses are just beginning, "old money" has fared better since the credit crunch with little change in the top.

According to the EG Rich List, a survey of the 500 wealthiest in UK and Irish property, compiled for Estates Gazette magazine, the combined net worth of the richest in real estate was just over £100bn.