Like the Hamptons for affluent New Yorkers, Singapore emerges as the go-to real estate hot spot - replacing Hong Kong - for wealthy Chinese. "It confers class status in China to say that you own a flat in Singapore," asserts Mohamed Ismail.
A few hundreds units short of 18,000, the number of home sales in Singapore last year was greater than all record-breaking figures achieved prior to 2007 before the market went south. By and large, interest rate below 1% helps stimulate and sustain the activity in the housing sector.
The Economist reports:
For an island nation roughly the size of San Francisco, "[t]he boom has also been pushed along by rich foreign buyers. About 16% of private units are now bought by outsiders. Singapore has always been a popular place for wealthy Indonesians and Malaysians to park their money, but the big difference now is the influx of Indians and, more importantly, Chinese."
FULL STORY: Flat plan
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