Singapore's Gated Island for the Rich Is Marred by Decayed Homes

Singapore's Gated Island for the Rich Is Marred by Decayed Homes

Sentosa Cove was once hailed as the city-state's answer to Monte Carlo, but many villas have sat empty for years.

By Low De Wei and Reinie Booysen

July 31, 2026

Singapore's Sentosa Island has long been one of the country's biggest tourism draws, luring millions of visitors each year with its beaches, casino and other leisure attractions. But for many of the ultra-rich who own homes there, it’s become a losing investment. Property values in Sentosa Cove, the luxury residential enclave on its eastern tip, have underperformed the broader prime market for years, with many properties changing hands at steep discounts.

More than 20 years ago, the government hoped to use the allure of seaside luxury living to attract affluent foreigners. Nowadays, there's a greater push to balance Singapore's appeal to the world's elite with public concerns over rising living costs and inequality.

“The government is still attracting the wealthy into Singapore but they’re no longer using real estate as a lure,” said Nicholas Mak, chief research officer of Mogul.sg, a local real estate portal. A number of things are “not going in favor of Sentosa Cove,” including a dearth of new residential projects, limited accessibility and corrosive coastal conditions.

“There’s no catalyst to really excite the market there,” Mak said. “Sentosa Cove has lost its shine. It’s a bit like a fax machine.”

Particularly emblematic of Sentosa Cove's property malaise are its more than 350 landed villas. Several are fading and crumbling with neglect in the face of the seawater and salty air. Multiple visits by Bloomberg found that more than 10% have fallen into disrepair, are abandoned or are under renovation.

One significant reason is a rule preventing foreigners from renting their freestanding homes out, leaving many vacant for years while the owners live and travel abroad, or stay in other properties on the mainland. But it’s also evidence that some among the global rich regard the Asian financial hub more as a place to park wealth than a home.

In the decade up to 2025, the median unit price of villas in the enclave has fallen by around 11% while apartment prices have risen nearly 15%. Over the same timespan, property prices in mainland districts such as the leafy Bukit Timah neighborhood or the prestigious Orchard Road shopping belt have surged by more than 50%.

https://i.imgur.com/SEhEHxa.png

Sentosa Cove was once described as Singapore’s answer to Monte Carlo or Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah. It sits on one corner of a 5-square-kilometer (2-square-mile) island, whose name means tranquility, and which was transformed from a former military outpost into a leisure destination in the 1970s.

As early attractions such as a waterpark and an Asia-themed village lost their appeal, the government added modern drawcards like hotels and casino complex Resorts World and a Universal Studios. But its most ambitious reinvention came with the creation of a gated residential enclave on reclaimed land, a place where buyers would be able to design and build their dream homes from scratch, loosely envisioned after France’s Port Grimaud.

Now, expatriate families whiz around on golf carts near a marina crammed with super yachts and not far from one of the world’s most expensive golf clubs. The waterways that slice through the island off the mainland of Singapore carve out even smaller islands with names like Pearl, Sandy, Coral and Treasure and boast the sort of tiki architecture that wouldn’t look out of place on the set of Survivor.

https://i.imgur.com/p8jmLOf.png

To attract overseas buyers, the government exempted Sentosa Cove from rules on the mainland that largely block foreigners from buying landed property. In addition to the regulation that prohibits foreign owners from renting out their villas, another factor weighing on the market is the Singapore-wide additional buyer’s stamp duty — on top of the regular buyer’s stamp duty — that has risen to 60% for most overseas property investors, except Americans and a few other nationalities. Leasehold ownership that will revert to the state in about eight decades is another detraction.

Weak demand among foreigners is matched by general disinterest among Singaporeans, but for different reasons. While expats are drawn to Sentosa Cove’s beachside, outdoor lifestyle — a rarity in Singapore — its lack of everyday amenities, from shopping malls and movie theaters to wet markets and hawker centers, remains a major drawback for locals.

https://i.imgur.com/hL01Dc8.png

To be fair, Sentosa Cove has seen a steady trickle of wealthy buyers over the years. They include Crypto.com co-founder and Chief Financial Officer Rafael Melo, as well as the wife of the founder of Japanese discount chain Don Don Donki Takao Yasuda.

Long-time resident Ivan Chin is another believer. He’s developed six homes in the gated estate, investing over S$100 million ($78 million). He’s not bothered by the large number of empty properties around him, where weeds have begun pushing up through the concrete and plaster peels from mold-streaked walls.

“I come here to get away from the crowds,” Chin, the Singaporean founder of an insect repellent empire, said on the porch of his villa shaped and kitted out like a Disney pirate ship. “Look, I have the best sunset in Singapore,” he adds, pointing over his private canal berth at the fading orange orb on the horizon.

The homes of Chin, whose Indonesian conglomerate Enesis Group also makes herbal mixes, stand out. One, which resembles an Egyptian temple, contains his art collection and an immersive cinematic experience he’s developing called “The Journey to the Cosmos.” Outside, two Anubis statues with red laser eyes flank the front door. A third is inspired by The Flintstones, complete with a pebble sandy beach pool and a treehouse.

“I am the real Crazy Rich Asian,” Chin said. He also owns more than a dozen luxury cars, including multiple Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Rolls-Royces.

“Sentosa is a foreigners’ place. When you block the foreigners, that’s it,” he said, referring to the 60% levy on overseas purchasers. “The tax is too high for foreigners, but foreigners love to live here, not Singaporeans. It’s a double negative but that’s how it is.”

https://i.imgur.com/4aYN3BK.png

Yet foreign demand alone has never been enough to lift Sentosa out of a boom-and-bust cycle. Authorities, long uncomfortable with property speculation, also avoided opening the floodgates completely by restricting foreigners from buying more than 1,800 square meters of land on the island.

One of Singapore’s real estate tycoons, Kwek Leng Beng, commented in 2019 about its neglect. “Sentosa was touted, when it first started, for the rich and famous,” he said. “Subsequently, her parents just forgot about this young lady.” In 2024, an associate company of City Developments Ltd., the developer he chairs, sold dozens of luxury condominiums it owns in the cove after slashing prices by roughly 40% compared to their initial marketed valuations in 2010. It still holds numerous units. A CDL spokesperson declined to provide further comment.

Scores of expats moved out to Sentosa during Covid to be closer to beaches when pools were shut and for the extra space, but rents that were pushed up by that influx have long since moderated.

Fault lines in the market deepened as a wave of Chinese interest during the pandemic waned. Buyers involved in a S$3 billion money laundering scandal in 2023 acquired a total of eight landed houses on Sentosa that now mostly stand empty after being confiscated by the police. No-one named in this story has any connection with this group.

One sea-facing plot that was seized by the bank failed to shift at multiple auctions. It was eventually sold for around S$22 million, nearly half the price once paid, to Benedict Beh, the Singaporean chief investment officer of Stallion Capital Management Pte, a family office.

“Sentosa Cove was essentially a flight to safety for ultra-high-net-worth individuals from around the region but now there’s more choice,” said Emmanuel Daniel, the Malaysian founder of financial publication the Asian Banker, who owned an apartment at a condominium called The Azure for more than 15 years.

https://i.imgur.com/wy7EFKu.png

Authorities plan to develop thousands of high-rise homes along the southern waterfront of Singapore’s mainland. Nearby Pulau Brani, an island housing a port, will be converted into a leisure destination as part of a revamp of Sentosa that will include new transport links and attractions.

Elisha Teo, general manager for Sentosa Cove Resort Management, which oversees the enclave and is a unit of government-run Sentosa Development Corp., said in a statement that maintaining the area is a priority.

While Sentosa Cove property owners are responsible for maintaining their private properties, the management “adopts a holistic and collaborative approach, working closely with owners to uphold the overall quality and environment of the estate,” he said. The management “may receive feedback relating to private property maintenance” from time to time and such feedback is taken seriously, he added. The management “works with the relevant owners and stakeholders to address the concerns raised.”

Sentosa’s villas are visible from the street. According to Bloomberg calculations based on numerous visits over a period of 10 months, over 60 are either empty, demolished or under renovation.

Michele Cabasug, an American agent with List Sotheby’s International Realty that specializes in Sentosa properties, acknowledged there “have been a couple of fire sales.” Several vendors with no takers for long stretches have slashed their asking prices, she said. The Chinese are still mildly keen, “but they’re not coming in bus loads,” said Cabasug, who lives in Sentosa. Indians are a growing pool, however, she added.

That’s reflected in some transactions. Last year, Ganen Sarvananthan, managing partner for TPG Capital Asia, bought a sea-facing villa for S$13.9 million. The seller was a Chinese national who ended up incurring a loss of almost S$5 million, or about 26%, versus the S$18.9 million paid in 2021. The site is among the few with an unobstructed view of the ocean, and would typically command more than canal-facing houses. TPG Capital declined to comment.

Shailendra Singh, managing director of venture capital firm Peak XV Partners, purchased two villas in 2023. A representative for Peak XV Partners declined to comment.

The Asian Banker’s Daniel sold his apartment earlier this year, after the S$11,000 of monthly rent he got during the pandemic nearly halved. Although he reaped a profit, in the long term, there’s little upside for the island enclave, he said.

“As an original idea, as a proof of concept,” Sentosa worked well, he said, pointing to the lessons it taught the government about how to attract the wealthy to Singapore. “But it’s lost its unique proposition.”

— With assistance from Bernadette Toh, Anand Mammen Katakam, Cathy Chan, Olivia Poh, and Silva Shih

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...decaying-homes