The hottest item for investment by the super-rich is rare pink diamonds from Australia.
Coloured diamonds have been viewed as a “safe haven” for wealthy investors for some time. Pink ones particularly have shot up in value over the last ten years, going from US$13,000 per carat to $78,000 last year.
“The value of fancy light pink diamonds has increased by an average of 20% year-on-year for the past five years," according to Duttson Rocks, a specialist diamond dealer.
The Graff Pink, a rare 24.78 carats intense pink diamond, sold at auction in 2010 for £30m, setting a world auction record for any diamond or any jewel.
For every 10,000 diamonds mined, only one will be coloured.
Many of the pink diamonds come from the Australia’s Argyle mine which its owner, Rio Tinto, plans to shut down in 2019. This has helped push up the diamonds’ price.
“My business has gone mad with pink diamonds,” said Duttson. “They are being hoovered up, especially by the Chinese.”
Barclays Wealth’s latest report on investment trends said that 26% of their wealthy UK clients now have more “treasures”, such as rare gems, in their portfolios than was the case just five years ago.
