The city-state’s 240,000 millionaires outpace spending by other Asian markets amid declining luxury sales worldwide
A global luxury slump hasn’t stopped Singaporeans from spending.
Despite slow demand for luxury goods in major markets like the US and China, sales on the Southeast Asian island nation are expected to increase by seven per cent to S$13.9 billion ($10.9 billion) this year compared to 2024, according to market research firm Euromonitor International, Bloomberg reported.
The projected climb means Singapore will surpass the regional shopping hubs of Japan, China, and South Korea, cementing itself as a standout in Southeast Asia. The country’s 2024 year-on-year growth outpaced nearly every other Asian market (besides Japan) tracked by the analytics firm. Next year, Singapore is estimated to reach its 2019, pre-Covid figure of S$14.7 billion (approximately $11.4 billion).
The city-state’s booming luxury sales coincide with a blossoming commercial real estate market, too. Last year, Singapore had the third-largest share of luxury store openings among 32 Asia-Pacific cities, excluding those in China’s mainland, according to data from Savills, a real estate firm.
“Singapore has proved to be a very stable place for wealthy people. That has created a very strong local base for the luxury market,” Jonathan Siboni, founder and CEO of consultancy Luxurynsight, told Bloomberg. “Singapore is an oasis in the desert.”
Places like the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, where Italian label Marni opened its first store last August, are oases indeed. The locale is equipped with buggies to whisk VIP shoppers around the mall for personalised styling sessions, and it’ll soon offer those same customers the opportunity to get a first look at unreleased luxe launches.
Singapore is also home to over 240,000 millionaires, according to last year’s report from Henley & Partners. Over the last decade, the city-state has seen a 64 percent increase in millionaires, due to the small nation’s open economy, liberal immigration policies, and lax regulations on wealth taxes. As a result, the median household employment income has risen for five straight years, according to a report from Singapore’s Department of Statistics.
Brands have even started using the Singaporean market as a testing ground to gauge interest in luxury goods.
“These aren’t just gimmicks,” Angelito Perez Tan, Jr., cofounder and CEO of RTG Group Asia, told Bloomberg. “They’re strategic soft launches that test how consumers engage emotionally with the brand.”
We’ll have to see how those tests pan out over the next few years.
This story was first published on Robb Report USA
