A COLCHESTER-born entrepreneur has been named as one of the richest people in East Anglia... and the nation.
The 2023 Sunday Times Rich List has revealed Jon Hunt has made the list.
The 68-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine reveals the wealth of the 350 richest people in Britain in its 35th annual edition.
There are 171 billionaires in the UK recorded this year, down six from 2022, the first fall for 14 years.
Among those included was Mr Hunt, who hails from Colchester.
He began his property business when he was just 19 when he borrowed a £100 deposit to buy a one-bedroom flat in Woking for £4,500.
Two years later he sold it for £7,750.
Today, according to the list Mr Hunt boasts an eye-watering £1.448 billion in wealth, £12million more than in 2022.
His success has seen him named the third wealthiest person in East Anglia topped only by Kirsten Rausing and Douw Steyn.
Having been born into an Army family in 1953, Mr Hunt was soon to follow suit and embarked on a brief spell in the military in Canada, before returning to Britain where he landed himself a job at a Guildford-based estate agency.
In 1981, the 28-year-old set up his firm Foxtons with school friend Anthony Pelligrinelli in a small converted Italian restaurant in Notting Hill.
The company took its name from a village near his Suffolk home and today boasts more than 60 offices in and around the capital city.
It has become known for its 800 strong fleet of Minis which zip around the city driven by agents.
In May 2007, Mr Hunt sold Foxtons to private equity group BC Partners for £375 million, and has since made significant investments into commercial and residential property in central London.
More recently, the 69-year-old is known as the founder of Pavilion, the business members club chain in Kensington High Street.
He has also developed Wilderness Reserve, an area of restored natural lakes, parkland and woods in Suffolk’s Yox Valley.
In developing the reserve, Mr Hunt purchased 5,000 acres of land, restored buildings and oversaw the reintroduction of wildlife and various species of flora and fauna.
His own private home is situated next to the reserve and within the area he has made various buildings available for private hire.
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The combined wealth of the UK billionaires is £683.856 billion, up £30.734 billion, or 4.5 per cent, on the total wealth of the billionaires in last year’s Rich List.
Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: "This year's Sunday Times Rich List shows a golden period for the super rich is over. For the first time in 14 years we've seen the number of UK billionaires fall.
"Two years ago we raised concerns about an unsettling boom in the fortunes of the very wealthy that continued unchecked during the political instability around Brexit and the pandemic.
"This is not a crash - but there are household names who have lost vast sums over the past year. The bursting of the tech bubble, the end of rock bottom interests and the jitters creeping through the banking industry have all taken their toll.
“The super rich don't exist in a vacuum. Many small investors lost money in some of their overblown stock market floats. Many people also work for their businesses. Financial losses for billionaires can have implications for us all."
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