A Shine On Singapore

The Little Red Dot is attracting wealth, commerce, and significant pecuniary investments from global brands and private investors.

- Alexander Karolik-Shlaen

Singapore pulled off its magic yet again with the exceptionally well-managed crisis control. Initially, it wasn’t as clear if Singapore would weather the storm too well, but in no time the true picture of the situation cleared up, especially when compared with other countries’ clumsy COVID-19 pandemic handling.

Singapore came out of this crisis with a reinforced image as a top country in the world for safe and comfortable living. This naturally had a major effect on the financial and property markets.

Despite non-existent international travel, billions of dollars streamed into Singapore. The residential property showrooms were filled with local buyers, who were purchasing properties in numbers exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The grand finale was in December 2020, with sales up 126 per cent compared to a year ago, making this the highest performance in the month of December in eight years.

And to remind you, the foreign buyers are still missing in the showrooms and are mostly absent in the residential property markets. One can just imagine the actual build-up demand for investing in Singapore property. And that is despite the draconian cooling measures that were applied on the forever-in-demand residential property of this shining beacon of safety and stability in the world.

BIG FOREIGN INVESTORS

On the money front: the Google co-founder Sergey Brin, the world's ninth-richest person with a personal fortune of USD 86.5 billion, is setting up a family office in the Lion City to manage his wealth. He is one of the latest billionaires to take advantage of Singapore's low taxes and relative ease to set up and run family offices. Family offices are private investment companies, sort of small private banks, which are set up to manage the assets of wealthy individuals and families.