S'pore prime home price rises rank world No. 3

Applause for our most-wealthy segment of the population for getting the "bronze" medal?

Apr 6, 2011
S'pore prime home price rises rank world No. 3
By Fiona Chan , ASSISTANT MONEY EDITOR

SINGAPORE'S luxury homes chalked up the third-biggest rise in prices across the world last year, behind only Shanghai and Mumbai, according to a new report out today.

The Wealth Report 2011, compiled by Citi Private Bank and property consultancy Knight Frank, found that high-end home prices in Singapore climbed by 18 per cent last year, the same gain as that in Finland's capital of Helsinki.

This was on top of a 17 per cent rise in 2009, when Singapore registered the world's fifth-largest jump in luxury home prices.

Similar homes in Shanghai saw a 21 per cent price surge last year, on top of a 52 per cent jump in 2009, while those in Mumbai rose in price by 20 per cent last year, after going up 11 per cent in 2009.

Traditional heavyweights Hong Kong, New York and London all saw smaller price jumps last year, ranging from 10 per cent to 15 per cent, the report said.

The 2010 survey of prices was conducted before Singapore's latest and toughest round of property cooling measures in January this year.

According to official data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the prices of all private homes, from mass market to luxury, climbed 17.6 per cent last year.

Prices of non-landed homes in what the URA terms the core central region - the prime districts of 9 to 11, the Central Business District and Sentosa - went up 14.2 per cent.

But despite the big jump in prices last year, Singapore's luxury homes were only the 10th most expensive globally.

As of the end of last year, average prices in the luxury home segment here reached US$27,100 (S$34,154) per sq m (psm), or about US$2,518 (S$3,173) per sq ft, the Wealth Report said.

This is less than half the level in Monaco, where high-end homes weighed in at US$65,600 psm at the end of last year, according to the report.

London's luxury homes were the second priciest in the world last year, at US$56,300 psm.

Cities in France, including St Tropez, Paris and Cannes, occupied the third to seventh spots, followed by Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore.

In general, 2010 was a good year for high-end homes, with about two in five of the world's most exclusive residential property markets rising in value, Citi and Knight Frank said in a statement on the Wealth Report. The report analysed the prices of luxury homes in 85 cities across 40 countries.

Among the losers last year, Dublin stood out with a 25 per cent fall in luxury home prices, while Dubai's properties lost 10 per cent in value.

While we're a reasonably rich country, we're not as rich a city.
The top 10 metropolis in the US, e.g. New York, San Jose, LA all have more HNWIs as a proportion of the population.

(06-04-2011, 10:01 AM)redcorolla95 Wrote: The top 10 metropolis in the US, e.g. New York, San Jose, LA all have more HNWIs as a proportion of the population.

This has changed. According to today's BusinessTimes, there're 219k HNWI here. Out of a population of 5m, this is 4.3%.

Perhaps, only San Jose boasts a higher proportion of HNWI, at least according to the 2009 figures.

(06-04-2011, 10:33 AM)bluechipstamp Wrote: Out of a population of 5m, this is 4.3%.

Based on statistics, I conclude that it is easier to become a HNWI than to become a doctor in Singapore. They are not mutually exclusive though.

Wow... that is closed to 1 out of 20.
Just imagine, there is probably one HNWI in every MRT cabin!

I think they need to raise the bar higher for HNWIs haha..

(06-04-2011, 11:25 AM)yeokiwi Wrote: Wow... that is closed to 1 out of 20.
Just imagine, there is probably one HNWI in every MRT cabin!

I think they need to raise the bar higher for HNWIs haha..

I doubt if a HNWI would take MRT in the first place.

I know of several HNWI in my company who take the bus to work... Sadly to say, my company doesn't provide carparks to staff based on Nett Worth or years of experience... Lol... Quite a large proportion of my colleagues fall into the HNWI category though.

(06-04-2011, 06:37 PM)Jon-san Wrote: I know of several HNWI in my company who take the bus to work... Sadly to say, my company doesn't provide carparks to staff based on Nett Worth or years of experience... Lol... Quite a large proportion of my colleagues fall into the HNWI category though.

Well, your company got many MPs and super grade civil servants there right...OR...many old uncles / aunties multi properties owners.

(06-04-2011, 10:33 AM)bluechipstamp Wrote:

(06-04-2011, 10:01 AM)redcorolla95 Wrote: The top 10 metropolis in the US, e.g. New York, San Jose, LA all have more HNWIs as a proportion of the population.

This has changed. According to today's BusinessTimes, there're 219k HNWI here. Out of a population of 5m, this is 4.3%.

Perhaps, only San Jose boasts a higher proportion of HNWI, at least according to the 2009 figures.

Ok i stand corrected, since as of last Oct according to Cap Gemini it was 80,000 pax. So that's a 2.5x jump.

And the no. for Singapore is even more significant because Cap Gemini uses the adult, not the total population.
Although the relative position of the Americans might be moderated somewhat as (i) the S&P 500 has done better than the STI to date since Jan 2010 (ii) they've been generally more leveraged too.

200-300,000 for the last few years used to be described as the no. of mass affluent, the so-called priority banking / Treasures segment with about US$200k of investable assets. So if the same ratio of 'mass affluent' to 'HNWI' holds (about 2.5 - 3.75x), this statistic could imply that 20-25% of Singapore adults could qualify to be Treasures members.

Now if I push this line of reasoning:
So since not every adult has the money to buy stocks, and the quality of discussion in this forum is quite high, that means everyone here qualifies to be Treasures member! (maybe except yours truly who is learning from all the old birds here)

According to global standards, investable assets should be >USD 1M to be considered HNWI.
Since SGD gained on USD, there are more HNWI here than before solely from greenback weakness.
Add property appreciation and enbloc millionaires, it would not be surprising if we have a higher number if HNWI.
There is no question Singapore has a greater concentration of wealthy people as compared to other parts of the world.
When there is a great concentration of wealth and resources are in short supply, the poorer folks get squeezed out.
The poorer folks exist here to service the rich folks and often do not get a fair deal.

The car polisher who cleans your car will not be able to afford a car here.
The cleaning lady who clean houses for a living is unlikely to be able to afford a decently sized house.
On a brighter note, at least there are wealthy people around to serve.