Singapore’s Top Investments For 2018

The next seismic shift in investment is likely to be gravitating toward the real estate market as numerous analysts bullishly predict. After four consecutive years of decline, Singapore’s property investment market has finally reached an inflection point, growing by 50 per cent to reach $8.1 b in 1H17. According to UOB analyst Vikrant Pandey, property prices are expected to rise between five and ten per cent by the end of next year after bottoming out in 2017.

More specifically, the luxury property market is showing signs of stirring, especially so for the exclusive properties in Sentosa Cove. Despite numerous properties previously racking up million-dollar losses and plentiful vacant units, sales at the luxurious waterfront area are starting to pick up. In fact, six of the seven buyers of bungalows in the residential enclave so far this year have been Singaporeans while condominium sales have been picking up. According to URA Realis data, 21 condo units have been sold so far this year, outstripping the average annual sales for the last four years that ranged between 24 and 26 units.

Property technology (proptech), is an emerging trend that aims to leverage on cutting-edge technology to enhance the middleman services we rely on to buy, sell, rent, build or manage residential and commercial property. In Singapore, locally based proptech startups such as PropQuest.sg, have captured roughly six per cent of venture capital funding to date. Despite its limited resources and relatively small market size, with strong government’s support, start-ups have been growing and further expanding to neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Seems the like the top property developer in Singapore, Capitaland, has already caught on to this emerging trend with the launch of C31 Ventures in June 2016, a S$100 million venture fund targeting startups, in an effort to remain at the forefront of innovation and lead the future of real estate.

The start-up scene proliferated for many years but unbeknownst to many, the homegrown start-up, SolarHome, a provider of solar energy for rural off-grid households in developing countries, has garnered overwhelming interest from local and regional investors alike. SolarHome provides Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) solar home systems, targeting the bottom-of-pyramid population in Southeast Asia. The model enables customers to “rent to own” plans of energy service subscription, offered at as low as $3-15 per month. As one of the pioneers in this area, the company believes this is just the beginning as the market opportunity for solar home systems has been growing quite substantially in Southeast Asia, especially since roughly 27 million households are living off-grid. The pre-Series A round, led by impact investor Uberis Capital, closed on an oversubscribed funding round over the past few months, with participation from other regional investors. To date, the company has raised $1.1 million.