Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio has been revealed to have joined the ranks of billionaires snapping up multimillion-dollar shophouses in Singapore.
His family office, the Dalio Family Office, purchased two shophouses at 44 and 46 Club Street in 2021 for about S$25.5 million, two sources told Financial Times.
FT also referenced a development approval issued by the government in end-2023 for the shophouse site, which listed Tan Mae Shen, the Singapore managing director of the Dalio Family Office, as the developer. The properties are currently undergoing renovation, due for completion next year.
In 2021, The Straits Times reported that Arcc Holdings and its chief executive Tony Chen sold the two 999-year leasehold shophouses for a total of S$25.5 million, or S$3,935 per square foot. The buyer was reportedly a foreign-based family office.
Dalio announced the opening of a family office in Singapore in 2020 to run his investments and philanthropy in the region.
Shophouse sales in Singapore have been gaining traction as more high-net-worth investors make their return.
A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU
Property Insights
Get an exclusive analysis of real estate and property news in Singapore and beyond.
In February, the wife of Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Zhang Ying, was reported by The Business Times to have bought three adjoining shophouses on Duxton Road in the Tanjong Pagar area for about S$45 million to S$50 million. She is a Singapore citizen.
Sales of shophouses rose 52.2 per cent to S$169.1 million in the first quarter of 2024 from the previous quarter on the back of more deals in larger quantums, based on a report by property consultancy Knight Frank,
There were 20 shophouse deals in Q1, with 17 freehold units and three leasehold units sold; in the previous quarter, 16 shophouses were sold, based on Knight Frank’s data.
Six deals were signed above S$10 million in Q1, three of which were above S$15 million.
Knight Frank said that the hiking of the property stamp duty for foreigners last year for residential purchases boosted investor interest in commercial shophouses among family offices, since the properties can serve as both assets and offices.
This is despite slower rates of shophouse sales and the opening of new family offices since money laundering investigation in Singapore started last August.
In 2021, sales of shophouses hit a record at S$1.9 billion, with the average price of a property rising from S$5 million to S$8 million to S$15 million to S$20 million over the past decade, the consultancy said.
It projects the sales volume of shophouses to be between S$1.1 billion and S$1.2 billion for the rest of 2024.
