Red hot and not expected to cool down for a while is the industry forecast for Singapore's top-end property market.
After a few relatively stagnant years virtually all segments of the real estate sector are in the throes of expansion and luxury flats are doing particularly well.
Hong Kong-based HKR International (HKRI) estimates investors are reaping capital gains of about 60 to 80 per cent on ultra high-end apartments, compared with about 30 per cent for the 'general' property market. CB Richard Ellis has catalogued a 64.3 per cent rise in average rents for luxury condominiums since prices sank to new lows in 2004.
The picture is changing so fast that some players are finding it difficult to define what a luxury property is. New price records are made and broken with astonishing regularity. The small but well-appointed Parkview Eclat condominium in the much sought-after Orchard Road district recently became one of just three properties in Singapore to break through the crucial S$4,000 (HK$20,950) per sqft barrier when a 16th-floor unit was sold for about S$16million.
Ku Swee Yong, director of prestige homes and international marketing at Savills, says the real estate firm used to place any properties going for about S$2,000 per sqft in the top tiers of the market, but that the threshold is now nearly double that.
So why are the moneyed classes suddenly infatuated with Singapore condos? Mr Ku believes the city state's efforts to become a regional wealth centre are starting to bear fruit. 'We're seeing more people buying for their own use,' he says. 'The private bankers are bringing in more of their clients. They want exposure to Singapore and value Singapore as a place to stay, though at the back of their minds there's also an investment value to properties to consider.'