Nine realtors among Forbes richest Indians list

The slump in the country's real estate industry notwithstanding, as many as nine Indian realtors have made their way into the Forbes' 40 richest Indians list.

The league of the realtors is led by DLF Chairman Kushal Pal Singh, who is ranked overall fifth with a fortune of $7.8 billion.

Of the nine people, whose combined net worth is $22.33 billion, five have fortunes of more than $1 billion.

The list of 40 richest people is led by Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani with a net worth of $20.8 billion, followed by ArcelorMittal Chief Lakshmi Mittal ($20.5 billion) and Anil Ambani ($12. 5 billion).

Meanwhile, in the list, apart from Singh, Adi Godrej and Gautam Adani are ranked at ninth and tenth, respectively.

Adi Godrej of Godrej Industries has a net worth of $4 billion, while Adani Enterprises' Gautam Adani's fortunes are valued at $3.9 billion.

Other realtors, who have made it to the list are Chandru Raheja of K Raheja Corp (20th rank), GMR Group's GM Rao (21), Unitech's Ramesh Chandra (27), Rajan Raheja of Raheja Properties (30), Niranjan Hiranandani (35) and Hemant Shah (37).

However, Singh witnessed a steep decline in his net worth in one year, losing as much as $27 billion.

"The real estate baron and DLF chairman lost $27.2 billion in the past year. Attempt to boost share price through share buyback was unsuccessful as were its plans to list its real estate investment trust in Singapore...," the magazine said.