Almost 3,500 Wealthy Millionaires, Mostly from China, Expected to be New Citizens of S’pore

Last Updated on 2023-05-05 , 1:01 pm

Singapore is an expensive city—but if you took social studies in Secondary school, you’d know that our beloved country’s strategic position makes us the prime location for trade flow.

Recently, Singaporean citizenship has become a sought-after commodity for the wealthy—aside from the perks of relocating here (if you’re rich), our passport is one of the strongest worldwide, granting visa-free access to 194 countries. 

It’s no surprise, then, that around 3,500 millionaires from across the globe are set to become Singaporean citizens this year, most of them from China.

3,500 Millionaires To Become New Citizens

This year, Singapore is set to attract 3,500 wealthy individuals, with net assets exceeding 1 million, to take up citizenship. 

Although the amount of wealth these citizens are set to generate for Singapore cannot be accurately estimated, each of them holds an average of at least USD 6 million, or around SGD 8 million, in investable wealth.

These figures were disclosed to Lianhe Zaobao by wealth analyst Andrew Amoils, who is affiliated with London-based investment migration consultancy Henly & Partners.

“In 2023, it is expected that 3,000 to 3,500 high-net-worth individuals will become Singaporean citizens, mostly comprising wealthy individuals from China,” he said.

He added that apart from mainland China and Hong Kong, the other new citizens are set to come from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, the United Kingdom and the Philippines.

S’pore Ranks Fifth In Number Of Millionaires 

Henly and Partners also released a report on the world’s wealthiest cities in 2023.

According to the report, the number of high-net-worth individuals in our country increased by 2,800 last year to 240,000. Singapore continues to rank fifth amongst the 20 cities with the largest number of millionaires in the world.

Their report defines high-net-worth individuals as persons with a wealth of USD 1 million, around SGD 1.3 million, or more.

In their list of the 20 richest cities, the United States occupies five slots, with New York in first place—the city is home to around 340,000 millionaires. The other four American cities are San Francisco (third), Los Angeles (sixth), Chicago (eleventh) and Houston (fifteenth). 

Though the number of high-net-worth individuals in Tokyo decreased by 5% over the last ten years, the city still ranks second, with 290,300 such individuals. London, formerly the richest city in the world, is now ranked fourth, with 258,000 high-net-worth residents.

Cities in the Greater China region also made the list, in the top ten—Hong Kong ranks seventh, while Beijing and Shanghai rank eighth and ninth, respectively. 

Seoul, Korea’s capital, ranks 16th on the list.

S’pore Surpasses Hong Kong On List

Before 2023, the list was last published in 2012. Hong Kong ranks seventh in the new edition, two spots below Singapore. 

In 2012, the city ranked fourth. 

According to the report, the number of millionaires in Hong Kong dropped by 27% in the past ten years, while Singapore saw our figure soar exponentially, by a whopping 40%.

It’s no wonder why even cai png seems so expensive these days, when 1 in 17 Singaporean residents are investment millionaires—this means your primary residence is excluded in the calculations, so your 1 million dollar HDB flat, unfortunately, doesn’t make you a high-net-worth individual.