To make it onto the NBR Rich List, your net worth needs to be at least $50 million. This year we have identified some rising stars who are likely candidates in future years.
At 28, Chinese New Zealander Charles Ma gives every indication of being a trailblazer in New Zealand’s property sector.
Having already been involved in several major projects, including Auckland’s huge 700-unit Sugartree apartment complex and a 500-section development at Flat Bush, Ma has now set his sights on a flagship project called Auranga.
Translated as “a life force that sets progress in motion,” Auranga is a master-planned community that will eventually consist of some 3000 homes built on 160ha of land alongside the Manukau Harbour at Karaka.
Like the Sugartree and Flat Bush projects, the funding is mainly from Chinese investors and Ma hopes that the $1 billion development will foster community engagement by setting new standards in urban design, with easy pedestrian access and a road network that will reduce vehicle movements by up to 30%.
As the founder and chief executive of Ma Development Enterprises, which was incorporated in 2018 as MADE Group, Ma says he has an intensely personal vision and desire to “add human worth by creating places that foster and share social equity.”
Initially educated at Auckland Grammar School, Ma graduated from the University of Auckland in 2014 with conjoint commerce and engineering degrees and has supplemented his education in business and real estate management with courses at Oxford, Harvard and Stanford Universities.
His mother, Catherine Ma, is chief executive of the Chinese-owned and publicly listed Marlborough Wine Estates. She is also a director of the Chinese-owned Lily Investment consortium behind the Sugartree and Flat Bush projects.