Foreigners Buying High-End Condos

Singapore has a thriving market for luxury condominiums that are being heavily invested in by buyers from the international market. These foreign buyers are usually well-off business tycoons or managers in vastly successful multinational firms. Usually the investments made by these elite buyers is in excess of $10 million. Sun Tongyu who is the co-founder of Alibaba.com has recently bought a condo during the month of April 2015 in the prime District 10 of Singapore for a staggering price of $51 million. All this money was spent on purchase of a single penthouse at Le Nouvel Ardmore by Wing Tai Holdings Ltd that measures 13,875 sqft.

Mahesh Buxani, another business tycoon who runs M Bus International in Hong Kong spent a mind whopping $22.5 million on a penthouse that measures 6900 sqft at Nassim Park Residences. This trend of extraordinary spending by successful businessmen didn’t just conclude here. Bought for a slightly higher than meager amount of $11.3 million; the penthouse at Marina Bay Suites now belongs to Facebook’s regional manager. This condo measures 4700 sqft in total. In the same new condo Singapore launch, a Chinese citizen bought an even bigger condo measuring at 8500 sqft for an impressive $19.5 million. Another Chinese buyer made a purchase for $10.42 million at Corals at Keppel Bay for a condo that measured 3520sqft.

The fact that most foreign buyers are getting increasingly interested in considering almost every new condo launch in Singapore is no surprise. This is true because the facilities being provided at these residential and commercial establishments are top of the line. Some of the amenities truly extract the invested money’s worth and deliver an exceptional living experience to the residents. Foreigners want to invest in such homes so that whenever they visit Singapore, they have a mini vacation even if they are on a business visit. Residents from all over the world, even from countries such as India are carving out amounts in excess of $15 million on a new condo Singapore launch.

Mr. Alan Cheong, the head of the research department at Savills Singapore is of the view that international prospective buyers are fascinated by almost every new condo launch in Singapore. The reason for this is the extremely low transaction cost in Singapore as compared to other regions such as Hong Kong. A penthouse in Hong Kong was transacted for HK$92,857 in April whereas; a much larger condo in Singapore was transacted for $3676. Also, where other regions offer tenure of about 50 years, condo establishments in Singapore offer 99-year leasehold tenures or even freehold tenures. Whatever the reasons may be, Singapore is surely turning out to be a destination for luxury condo buyers interested in spending big bucks in the property industry!