That island mystical combination of country-city of Singapore, the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia, is again winning titles. This time as the permanent residence location preferred by the rich and famous whose business and social lives consist mainly of travel to and from countries other than Singapore
Now they are calling the new mobile millionaires.
RBC Wealth Management, part of Royal Bank of Canada, based in Toronto, and EIU, a unit of The Economist Group based in London, examined 558 individuals with at least $ 1 million of investable assets until June to October.
Singapore did beat Hong Kong for honors. Seventy-five percent of those surveyed chose Singapore; 25 percent chose Hong Kong.
Quality of life in Singapore is what convinced the rich. They believe that Singapore is a far safer to upgrade to a surrounding that often air-polluted Hong Kong family asylum.
The rich and famous also cited the country's political stability as important. The infrastructure and educational opportunity were also rated on top.
Mobile millionaires also see Singapore as a safe haven to park much of their wealth while deciding where to invest later. Zurich bankers will not like to hear that.
But as a place in which to conduct business, Hong Kong topped Singapore, according to an index published in March by Bloomberg rankings. Hong Kong is the gateway to China - and many of the top corporations in the world understand that. For years, they have been eager to win a slice of the business pie in Beijing.
Boston Consulting Group reports published on May 31 showed that Singapore set up 14 percent to 188,000 millionaire households last year, when the Asia-Pacific region countered a decline in wealth in western Europe and the US .
The proportion of millionaire households in Singapore was 17 percent, the highest in the world, followed by Qatar and Kuwait. Singapore has an estimated permanent population of 5.1 million; two million are estimated to be foreign.
About 23 percent of internationally mobile rich in Singapore prefer real estate investment as their top assets, compared to 7 percent in North America.