Facing a slacking property market, Chinese real estate tycoons witnessed a decline in their wealth this year, according to China’s Rich List for Real Estate released yesterday by the Hurun Research Institute.

The 51 people on this year's list saw their combined value decrease by 5.2 percent, to 651.8 billion yuan. This figure also represents a massive 17.4 percent loss from 2007 when Hurun first released the list.

This year, a person has to possess at least 6 billion yuan, made through the real estate sector, 500 million yuan less than last year’s requirement, before he or she can secure a spot on the list..

58-year-old Wang Jianlin, chairman of Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd. and the second richest person in China, replaced Hui Ka Yan, chairman of the Evergrande Real Estate Group, at the top of the real estate list, with 45 billion yuan of his total 65 billion yuan capital having been derived from the real estate market.

Among the ten richest property developers of this year, only three managed to increase their wealth.

A separate rich list which was recently unveiled by Hurun tracked the wealth of China's super-rich from all business sectors. The list showed that manufacturing overtook real estate for the first time as the sector that gave rise to the largest number of China’s richest people.

Following are the top 11 richest property tycoons in China this year according to the Hurun list (Wealth listed below is generated in the real estate sector):

 Yan Bin (嚴(yán)彬)

Yan Bin

2012 Wealth: US$2.69 billion, unchanged YoY

2011 Ranking: 11

Company: Reignwood Group (華彬)

Headquarters: Beijing

Age: 58