77% in real estate, 25,000 tonnes of gold: how India’s new millionaires keep their wealth

India added 31,033 new US-dollar millionaires in 2025, more than twice mainland China’s 14,079, according to the UBS Global Wealth Report 2026. But the shape of that wealth follows an old pattern: Indians still don’t store their money the way wealthier financial economies do.

An RBI-linked household finance study found that the average Indian household held 77% of its assets in real estate, 11% in gold, 7% in durable goods and just 5% in financial assets. UBS’s 2026 findings confirm the trend at a national level, showing only 25.8% of India’s gross personal wealth sits in financial assets, compared with 78.9% in the US, 68.9% in Japan and 51.9% in mainland China.

The World Gold Council estimates Indian households sit on as much as 25,000 tonnes of gold, held not just as an investment but as wedding heirlooms, emergency collateral and what many regard as an inflation hedge. Gold and real estate, especially in sought-after locations, also serve as visible markers of upward mobility.

Fresh savings continue to flow more into tangible assets even as equities go more mainstream through SIPs, mutual funds and demat accounts. In FY24, household net financial savings came to 5.3% of GDP, while savings in physical assets rose to 13.5%. Gold compounded at roughly 9-11% a year over the past decade on most estimates, before the 2025-26 price spike pushed returns even higher, while equities have generally rewarded financialisation more strongly over long periods, with Nifty 50 total returns in the low double digits.

India’s household debt sits at 8.2% of gross wealth, below mainland China’s 10.6%, the US’s 10.9% and the UK’s 20%. That relatively low leverage is reassuring, but combined with India’s thin financial-asset share, it points to wealth that remains deeply concentrated and largely locked away from market instruments.