https://www.theedgesingapore.com/ne...nsion-deals-are-increasingly-shrouded-secrecy
Singapore mansion deals are increasingly shrouded in secrecy
BloombergThu, Dec 12, 2024 • 11:28 AM GMT+08 • • 8 min read
Bloomberg says more people buy homes with trusts, hiding owners’ identities. Photo: Bloomberg
Singapore’s ultra-rich are increasingly cloaking their purchases of mansions in the city-state in secrecy, to avoid drawing attention to their wealth and social status.
The market for exclusive, multi-million-dollar houses called Good Class Bungalows has heated up this year in the Asian financial hub. At least $1.1 billion worth of deals were inked from January to early December, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg News and List Sotheby’s International Realty, a luxury residential brokerage.
Close to half of those bungalow purchases, as measured by value, didn’t include legal filings known as property caveats that make the transactions widely known. Deals without caveats are much harder to track because they don’t show up in a database maintained by Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. They usually become public through press leaks and directed searches of local real estate ownership records.\
More individuals are also acquiring Singapore mansions using shell companies or trusts that help keep their identities private. Some buyers now require brokers to sign non-disclosure agreements that bar them from divulging owners’ identities and other details, according to people familiar with the transactions.
The ability to buy Good Class Bungalows is a privilege the government affords only to citizens and a small number of foreigners who have received approval from Singapore’s law minister. Soaring prices for these luxury homes and the mystery around some recent buyers have raised questions about whether there should be more transparency around the ownership of the highly coveted assets.
It is also a sensitive issue for locals, because Singapore has granted citizenship to wealthy migrants who are paying large sums for private properties.
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“There are more and more buyers who prefer to be low profile,” said William Wong, founder of Realstar Premier Group, a property agency specialising in bungalows.
That’s especially been the case after a $3 billion money laundering scandal erupted last year and drew attention to how some China-born Singapore residents were staying in mansions that they rented for as much as $150,000 a month.
Ten money launderers have since been convicted, jailed and deported. Wong said buyers of high-end homes don’t want to be unduly scrutinised, and would rather keep their purchases under the radar.
Surging prices
There are about 2,800 Good Class Bungalows in land-scarce Singapore, where nearly 80% of households live in public high-rise flats. GCBs generally have plot sizes of at least 1,400 sqm and are all located in prime residential areas.
The median sale price of a GCB has nearly doubled from 2019 to about $36 million this year, according to
Bloomberg’s calculations. Historically, most individuals who buy Singapore mansions have lodged property caveats, which protect the buyer’s interest in the asset and prevent others from poaching it before the sale is completed.
Most of the biggest transactions in 2023 and 2024 didn’t have caveats. The largest completed deal this year was a $84 million purchase of a bungalow in April by Xiang Yangyang, the daughter of Chinese nickel billionaire Xiang Guangda,
Bloomberg Newsreported earlier. The property’s previous owner had paid $37.6 million in 2020 for the 2,612 sqm of land on which the mansion sits, in an enclave called Bin Tong Park.
Less than a mile away, a pair of GCBs on adjacent plots on Belmont Road were sold for $131 million, according to property filings. The deals were reported by a local newspaper in July.
One plot was purchased by Jennifer Tzelee Teo, a 48-year-old naturalised Singapore citizen originally from China. The other property was acquired by a trust that also listed Teo’s name, although the beneficiary wasn’t disclosed.
Teo is the wife of billionaire Zhang Lei, the China-born founder and Chairman of Hillhouse Investment, according to people familiar with the matter. Her legal name used to be Zhao Li, and she changed it after becoming a Singaporean, according to public records reviewed by
Bloomberg News. In Singapore, Teo is a common way to romanise the surname Zhang.
Zhang is also a naturalised Singaporean, and he owns a condominium near Singapore’s main shopping belt Orchard Road, property records show.
Singapore citizens have to pay an additional 20% tax on their second local residential property purchase, and 30% on subsequent purchases. If a spouse or other family member buys the property, this so-called “additional buyer’s stamp duty” would not be incurred. Some parents have also been known to purchase homes using a trust structure for children under the age of 21, the minimum legal age to own a private property in Singapore.
“We have noticed a growing interest from Chinese buyers in Good Class Bungalows in recent months,” said Mabel Tan, a senior partner at law firm Joseph Tan Jude Benny LLP who heads its property and conveyancing department, especially for undeveloped land to customise the property. In some cases, she said, buyers are exploring purchases with the “anticipation of obtaining Singapore citizenship in the very near future”.
Wong of Realstar said Chinese migrants are also “very willing to pay premiums for the properties they like”, especially since the assets are mostly of freehold status — unlike in China — and are still cheaper relative to similar assets in the prime locations of Hong Kong.
Non-caveated deals
Among the non-caveated transactions was a $57 million purchase completed in April of a nearly 1,770 sqm Dalvey Estate property by Anthony Tjajadi, the founding partner of Singapore-based investment firm Trihill Capital and a descendant of an Indonesian family.
In October, the wife of failed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital’s co-founder Su Zhu sold a mansion for $51 million to Chrispianto Karim, who also hails from an Indonesian family that owns a palm oil conglomerate.
Last year, Singapore’s Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng bought a Good Class Bungalow in another enclave called Brizay Park for nearly $27.3 million. Also in 2023, Wang Qianqian, a China-born Singapore citizen, paid $50 million for a Holland Rise mansion that had been owned by Mah Bow Tan, a former minister who once oversaw public housing in the city.
Some countries have sought to uncloak the secrecy of the rich, with mixed success. To combat money-laundering and discourage secrecy, the UK introduced new rules in 2022 requiring offshore companies that own UK properties to disclose their ultimate beneficiary. Individuals also have to pay higher taxes if they use such structures to buy homes rather than purchasing them directly under their own names.
In New York, where many wealthy individuals have used limited liability companies to buy luxury apartments, a bill meant to create a public database of shell companies’ owners in real estate deals ended up being watered down, with access granted only to law enforcement agencies.
Singapore imposes a 65% tax on residential property purchases using trusts. It has to be paid in cash upfront, and citizens can seek a refund in some cases.
In September, an online media outlet reported that UBS Trustees had bought a bungalow from Singapore’s law minister, K Shanmugam, in the Queen Astrid Park area for $88 million. The transaction was inked more than a year ago in August 2023.
The property has a land area of nearly 3,171 sqm. The purchase was done on behalf of an entity called the Jasmine Villa Settlement, according to property filings. Its ultimate beneficiary’s identity couldn’t be established.
The sale of the property, originally bought for $7.95 million in 2003, has become political fodder. An opposition party leader, Chee Soon Juan, questioned how the bungalow’s recent valuation was determined and who the new owner is.
In response to a parliamentary question in October, Singapore’s second minister for law Edwin Tong said that no trusts with foreign beneficiaries have been approved to purchase GCBs since 2019. In addition, no foreigners have bought such homes since 2021. The Singapore Land Authority, a statutory board under the law ministry, does not collect general data on landed residential properties acquired through trust companies if the beneficiaries are Singapore citizens.
In essence, that means that property agents and other service providers involved in the transactions are primarily responsible for verifying the identities and source of wealth of Singaporean mansion buyers.
“The problem with opacity is the fallout from public perception is much worse than the actual problem,” said Alan Cheong, executive director of research for Singapore at real estate consultancy Savills, referring to the increasing number of property deals that don’t have caveats.
The risk is that “things may go out of control if there are no checks and balances”, and it would be better if all private property deals are subject to mandatory disclosure rules, he added. “Singapore has prided itself as being a very transparent and open economy, so it should continue to hold on to the ideal.”
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