Notes on capital, property and consequence.
An occasional record of how capital is moving through Singapore and the region: transactions we have observed, trends that seem meaningful, and perspectives we choose to share.
Read more at Zaiwealth / Capital ↗. To be notified of new dispatches, write to alvin@zaiwealth.sg.
027 · July 2026The market you don’t see.The majority of Singapore’s significant property transactions now conclude off-market, through introductions rather than listings. How the private market actually works, and why it grew.
026 · July 2026Sentosa Cove, the honest market.Two thirds of Sentosa Cove resales in 2025 were loss-making, with landed prices down 13 percent from 2023. Why the island’s willingness to mark to market is its strength.
025 · June 2026Orchard’s second act.Orchard prime retail rents keep grinding higher as Zimmermann, Jil Sander, Mikimoto and the watch houses sign space, with Orchard taking just 10 percent of future supply. The tenants are the signal.
024 · June 2026The Johor variable.Eighteen months into the JS-SEZ, Johor has drawn RM91 billion in approved investment and the RTS Link opens in December. What the corridor changes, and does not change, for Singapore assets.
023 · June 2026What land knows first.A Tanjong Rhu site drew five bidders and a record RCR land rate of S$1,455 psf ppr; the 1H2026 GLS list offers 4,575 homes. Why land bids are the market’s best forecast.
022 · May 2026Nassim Road, repriced.A Nassim Road Good Class Bungalow sold at S$64.9 million, about S$4,550 psf on land, a record for the street. On what Singapore’s most guarded address is now worth.
021 · May 2026Nineteen point seven billion.Singapore investment sales doubled quarter on quarter to S$19.7 billion in Q1 2026, led by S$10.3 billion of commercial deals. On momentum, and what it does not include.
020 · May 2026Twelve dollars and four cents.Singapore CBD Grade A office rents reached S$12.04 psf in Q1 2026, a seventeen-year high, with vacancy near 6.9 percent. What tight supply means for occupiers and holders.
019 · April 2026Loyang Valley, and the en bloc that cleared.Loyang Valley sold en bloc for S$880 million to a SingHaiyi-led consortium on its third attempt, after a year in which only two collective sales succeeded. What separates the deals that clear.
003 · April 202678 Shenton Way, and the return of long-hold conviction.On Allgreen’s acquisition of 78 Shenton Way from PGIM, and why the buyer profile at the margin of Singapore CBD office has changed.
018 · April 2026The cost of money, halved.Three-month SORA fell from above 3 percent to near 1 percent in fifteen months; fixed mortgages from the low-3s to 1.4 percent. Why cheap money has not produced euphoria, and who benefits.
017 · March 2026The Centrepoint, in two acts.The S$391.9 million sale of The Centrepoint’s rear block opens a new chapter of Orchard Road repositioning. On commercial en bloc as the quiet path to prime land.
002 · March 2026Good Class Bungalows. Concentration, not dispersion.Twenty-eight transactions worth S$966 million in 2025. What the numbers hide about who is actually buying.
016 · March 2026Who buys prime now.Foreign participation in Singapore’s prime districts fell some 60 percent under the 2023 ABSD regime; 64 percent of Singaporean CCR purchases were under S$2.5 million. The prime market has been re-founded on domestic demand.
015 · February 2026Full hotels, flat rates.Singapore received 16.9 million visitors in 2025, with hotel occupancy at 81.9 percent but RevPAR slightly down at S$224. What full hotels with flat rates mean for owners.
001 · February 2026Sentosa Cove, patient capital.A softer price read at first glance, a quieter story underneath. On volume compression, institutional rotation, and the buyers who remain.
014 · February 2026The price of a finished house.A Good Class Bungalow on Tanglin Hill sold for S$93.9 million, about S$6,017 psf on land, a record rate. What the premium for a completed house says about time as the scarcest input.
013 · January 2026Three point four percent.Singapore private home prices rose 3.4 percent in 2025, the slowest in five years. Landed values rose 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter alone. Why the composition matters more than the headline.
012 · January 2026The return of size.Singapore investment sales reached S$33.68 billion in 2025, up 16.8 percent, capped by Keppel REIT’s S$1.45 billion MBFC Tower 3 stake. On what the year’s largest cheques have in common.
011 · December 2025Two thousand family offices.Singapore’s single-family-office count crossed 2,000 in 2025, with tax incentives extended through 2029. What that concentration of patient capital means for private real estate.
010 · December 2025Six thousand a foot.An Aman-branded unit at The Skywaters at S$6,501 psf. A Park Nova penthouse at S$6,593 psf. Two units at 21 Anderson at S$52.25 million each. The S$6,000 threshold is now a market of its own.
009 · November 2025Twenty quarters of quiet compounding.JTC’s all-industrial rental index has now risen for twenty consecutive quarters, up 25 percent from the 2020 trough. On logistics, food factories, and the least glamorous compounder in Singapore.
008 · November 2025Priced per key.The Orchid Hotel at S$273 million, Duxton Reserve at S$80 million, Hotel Miramar at S$160 million. What per-key arithmetic says about who buys Singapore hospitality now.
007 · October 2025Shophouses, after the reckoning.Conservation shophouse volumes are running at roughly half the 2023 peak after the money-laundering scrutiny. Why a cleaner market at lower volume is a stronger market.
006 · October 2025A quiet acceleration.URA’s flash estimate put Q3 2025 private home prices up 1.2 percent, after 1.0 percent in Q2. Three quarters of acceleration, with almost no commentary. Why the silence matters.
005 · September 2025South Beach, and the price of permanence.City Developments’ sale of its South Beach stake to IOI Properties valued the complex at S$2.75 billion. On integrated assets, Malaysian capital, and what full control is worth.
004 · September 2025The four-year clock.On 3 July 2025, Singapore extended the Seller’s Stamp Duty holding period from three years to four and raised every tier by four points. What the measure targets, and what it protects.