Gina Rinehart slings into Singapore’s property market

The mining tycoon Gina Rinehart has reportedly secured two luxury Singapore apartments – getaways rather than permanent abodes – with Singapore’s Business Times newspaper suggesting the purchases were in the Seven Palms Sentosa Cove condominium.

The 41 apartment complex, scheduled for completion this year, has been designed by the Perth-born architect Kerry Hill. It’s an upmarket waterfront residential district with the apartments in the four-storey project facing either the Tanjong Golf Course at Sentosa Golf Club or Tanjong Beach.

The project – marketed as Singapore’s only beachfront residence – was launched in 2009 with its off the plan sales setting record prices. Its due for completion next year.

The newspaper has reported an entity linked to Hancock Prospecting was paying about $S23.3 million for a third floor unit and $S33.9 million for one on the fourth level.

It suggests the island city state, which has low income taxes, is fast becoming a haven for wealthy investors, as it follows the east coast mining tycoon Nathan Tinkler making Singapore his clean environment home-base earlier this year.

Rinehart has previously praised Singapore’s way of doing business, noting that Singapore welcomed investment, made real efforts to minimise red tape, enabled guest labour, had low taxes and low crime, and had no debt.

Hancock Prospecting and SC Global have declined to comment on the report.

Seven Palms is the project of SC Global, a luxury property developer founded in 1996 by former banker Simon Cheong. Forbes magazine reported Cheong, who grew up in Singapore, got his M.B.A. from George Washington University in the US and took his first job in investment banking in 1983.

In February, the AMFraser Securities stockmarket analysis on SC Global noted the sales rate of Seven Palms was at 24% sold.

It forecast that luxurious residential sales would remain tepid, compounded by the government slapping an additional 10% buyer stamp duty on foreigners buying residential properties.

SC Global, which was responsible for the The Marq on Paterson Hill, a boutique Singapore highrise, owns 50% of the middle market Australian builder, AVJennings.

This article first appeared on Property Observer.