Have $138m to spare? Combine these 5 Marina Bay units to make a super penthouse

SINGAPORE  - Five penthouses at the 99-year leasehold Marina Bay Residences have been put on the market collectively, with an indicative price of $138 million.

When combined, they will create a super penthouse boasting 28,258 sq ft of strata area across five storeys, said exclusive marketing agent Tristar Properties.

This amalgamation will be subject to internal staircases being built to connect the units, if the necessary approvals are obtained. Super penthouses typically have a minimum size of 10,000 sq ft.

The indicative price tag works out to about $4,884 per sq ft (psf) based on the total strata area.

The five penthouses have a combined 24 bedrooms and a 25m rooftop pool, and occupy levels 50 to 54. The largest penthouse in the collection is a 11,012 sq ft triplex or three-storey unit.

This "rare" collection offers "efficiency of usable space", and will suit a multi-generational household or serve as an opulent home for an ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individual and his family, Tristar said in a press statement on Monday (Feb 8).

A family office owns four of the five penthouses, including the largest apartment, having purchased them in December 2006 for nearly $65.8 million. The fifth penthouse belongs to a private investor, who bought it in 2013 for close to $13.9 million, Tristar told The Business Times.

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The combined property will be bigger than the 21,108 sq ft super penthouse at Wallich Residence that was recently sold by the Dysons behind the eponymous British consumer electronics company.

BT reported last October that the triplex unit, perched at the top three levels of Guoco Tower, was sold to an Indonesia-born tycoon for $62 million, or close to $3,000 psf.

Mr James Dyson and his wife Deirdre in 2019 paid $73.8 million, or $3,496 psf, for that penthouse, which was then the most expensive condominium in Singapore.

There were a total of 22 luxury penthouse transactions in 2019 and 2020 with a total value of about $580 million, based on data from Tristar's tracker.

The highest psf unit price achieved during that period was $5,125 psf for the sale of a unit at City Developments Limited's freehold condominium Boulevard 88 in the Orchard road area.

Demand for opulent homes in Singapore has been growing in the past few years, fuelled by the United States-China trade war, Hong Kong protests, Brexit and now the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Tristar.

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"Singapore has clearly emerged as a safe haven (location) during the pandemic for many UHNW individuals. The ultra wealthy have also increasingly chosen the city-state in recent years to open family offices," said Tristar associate director Edwin Yip.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin; Mr Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates; and Mr Dyson are among those setting up family offices in Singapore.

Wealthy individuals are "attracted to Singapore's low tax rates, political stability and incentives such as a scheme giving investors a pathway to permanent residency", with many continuing to express strong interest to invest in a luxury residential asset in the Republic in the near term, Mr Yip said.

Tristar foresees "robust" pent-up demand in such properties as the Singapore economy reopens and travel restrictions are gradually lifted.

The Marina Bay penthouse collection stands out as a one-of-a-kind "trophy asset", as there is no comparable Singapore penthouse of this size and with such an unrivalled view, Mr Yip said.

Marina Bay Residences is connected to Marina Bay Link Mall, and about six minutes on foot to The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands. It is also 20 minutes away from Changi Airport by car, via the Marina Coastal Expressway and East Coast Parkway.

This article was first published in The Business Times. Permission required for reproduction.