WealthInsight’s report on Singapore ‘The Rise of the Lion City’ reveals that the region has the highest millionaire population density in the world after Monaco with dollar millionaires growing at a rate of 59% between 2012 and 2017.
The global wealth consultancy predicts that the majority of this boom in wealth will come from the financial services industry, which is already the source of wealth for 22% of multimillionaires and 35.3% of millionaires in the region last year – a 163% increase from 2008.
This wealth will be magnified by other UHNW families from Asia’s emerging economies gravitating towards the region as their own markets begin to look more uncertain, according to WealthInsight analyst Oliver Williams.
“The allure of Singapore to the newly wealthy families of China, India, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia is immense,” he noted.
However, while Singapore is something of a melting pot of different nationalities, it is native Singapore citizens that make up the largest percentage of multimillionaires.
With over US$1.29 trn assets under management Singapore is also the fastest growing wealth centre and the report echoes other predictions made by wealth forecasters who have said that the country will eclipse Switzerland as the world’s largest offshore wealth centre – WealthInsight predicts this will happen by 2020.
“This is apparent when you look at where the money is held – Singaporean millionaires hold 40% of their foreign assets in the Asia-Pacific region,” Williams added.
According to the report, in 2012 Singaporean millionaires held 35.2% (US$302bn, £188.3b, €223.8bn) of their wealth outside their home country, which is above the global average of 20% to 30%. Wealthinsight expects foreign assets holdings to reach US$462bn by 2017.
Other wealth facts about the region:
*Males make up 83% of multimillionaires in Singapore
*47% of Singaporean multimillionaires earned their wealth, whereas 35% are entrepreneurs.
*Over 150,000 international students will enrol in the state’s five public and 15 private universities by 2015.
There were just over 183,000 millionaires in Singapore in 2012, who collectively held US857bn or 85.7% of the total individual wealth held in the country.
