Singapore apartment developers eye rich Indonesian

SINGAPURA. A younger generation of high net worth individuals have joined the trend of buying apartments worth millions of dollars in neighboring Singapore.

The developers of Marina Bay Suites, a premium residential tower in Singapore, says people in that group have driven up sales of their apartments and penthouses priced as high as S$20 million (US$15.7 million).

“Fifty percent of our buyers are Singaporean, the other 50 percent foreigners — around 30 percent [of the foreign buyers] are Indonesians,” Thomas Tan, residential marketing director at Raffles Quay Asset Management, said on Thursday.

Tan added that Indonesian buyers looking for more than just an investment had purchased prime apartments and penthouses across all size and price ranges.

He said more young buyers “in their 30s or 40s” snapped up Raffles’ apartment units, besides the more mature “seasoned investors”.

Raffles is responsible for the management and marketing of Marina Bay Suites. It operates under a consortium of developers — Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, Hongkong Land and Keppel Land Limited — that started constructing the residential suites in 2010.

Marina Bay Suites, located on the waterfront of Marina Bay, offers three- and four-bedroom apartments in addition to penthouses.

The price for a three-bedroom unit starts at roughly S$4.8 million, with four-bedroom units fetching S$6 million and upwards.

A penthouse, measuring up to 790 square meters, costs upward of S$20 million.

“Two of the latest apartment units were sold to Indonesians,” Tan said.

A study by asset management firm, Julius Baer, estimated that Indonesia, besides China and India, will emerge as an Asian “giant of wealth creation”. The firm predicts that the number of high net worth individuals in Indonesia would soar to 104,000 people in 2015, from 33,000 in 2010.

Tan said Indonesians had traditionally shown interest in property in Singapore given the proximity of the city-state, not to mention the many families who sent their children to school there.

The strength of the Indonesian market, he said, had prompted the company “to continue reaching out to Indonesians” by marketing their last batch of residential units — which consist of 22 apartment and two penthouse units — here.

He added that Raffles had assigned agents who would take customers for “very private previews”, although it had no plans yet to establish a local representative office. “If they happen to be in Singapore, they want to take a look before they choose a unit,” he said.

He also said foreigners found purchasing apartments in Singapore relatively facile, given the streamlined process involved, in addition to interest rates offered by banks in Singapore that stood at a historical low of between 1-2 percent.

As a foreign premium developer, Raffles is not the only one setting its eyes at the Indonesian market. Crown International Holdings Group, an Australian property developer specializing in high-end projects, has set up a marketing agency in Indonesia to attain its target of amassing A$100 million (US$96.69 million) from sales in Indonesia within the next three years. (Mariel Grazella)