“Many happy returns” or something like a refuge?

When KPMG executive Anton Ludenklau moved from the leafy streets of London’s commuter town to the skyscraper-filled streets of Singapore, the first thing he noticed was how easy it was to do business in the Southeast Asian country.

“People tend to form relationships here,” he told CNBC by phone.

In January 2021, Mr. Luddenklau moved to Singapore to lead KPMG’s financial services advisory practice in the country. “When you arrive here, you see that the government actually has a nation-building mindset and that brings great potential,” he said.

Mr Ludenklau added that while Singapore itself as a market is “not particularly interesting” due to its small population, investors like its location, British common law and large private capital market, adding that Singapore is a “hub” for capital flows to and from Asia.

Singapore’s foreign direct investment (FDI) levels as a percentage of GDP are among the highest in the world, according to the World Bank, and many foreign investors see the country as a haven.

“Reliability is a big reason why Singapore attracts foreign investors,” said Jeff Howie, market strategist at the city-state exchange SGX Group. “Currencies provide policy stability, strong institutions, deep trade and financial links, and are increasingly seen as anchors of macro discipline rather than variables,” he told CNBC in an email.

In fact, the Singapore dollar hit its highest value against the US dollar this week since October 2014. It was trading at around 1.26 as of Wednesday.

In the five years he has lived in Singapore, Luddenklau has watched the country transform from a “little red dot” (an affectionate colloquialism referring to its size on a map) to something much more. Ludenklau referred to a term Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney used last week to describe his country, saying it is now “closer to becoming a globally significant middle power.”

Tian Ong Foo, Regional Head of Private Banking and Head of Singapore Office standard charteredHe told CNBC in an email that the island nation is a “strategic hub” for investing in markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand “without directly taking on the operational and regulatory complexities of those markets.” super app grabFor example, the company is based in Singapore and operates in seven other countries in the region, including Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines.

“Compared to other hubs, it has lower geopolitical risks, clearer regulations and a mature financial ecosystem,” Hu said.

Srini Nagarajan, managing director and head of Asia at British impact investment organization British International Investment (BII), said Singapore was the “perfect place” to invest in the region’s emerging economies.

Nagarajan’s focus is on climate finance, while BII, which has a focus on the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, is tasked with investing up to 500 million pounds (approximately $685 million) in green projects and technologies in Southeast Asia by the end of this year. “These markets offer the best opportunity to remove the most carbon from the atmosphere in the short term,” Nagarajan said.

In October, BII committed $60 million to the Green Investment Partnership. The Green Investment Partnership is an initiative set up by Singapore’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), to finance projects such as bioenergy and solar power projects.

Morgan Stanley said in a research note last year that many investors view Singapore as an “illiquid safe haven.” However, new policies aimed at “activating” the stock market will change this, the bank added, noting that MAS has made an “unprecedented” $4 billion cash investment to provide liquidity for small and mid-cap stocks.

Morgan Stanley estimated that the value of the MSCI Singapore Index could double between 2025 and 2030 as the country enters a “new era of wealth creation”.

“Sixty years after its leap to independence, the country is now transforming from a safe harbor for global capital to a strategic engine of innovation and influence,” the report said.

SGX’s Mr Howie said Singapore is more than just a haven for investors, saying: “It’s not just about escaping volatility. Rather, it may be about accessing a market that provides a reliable and evolving economic base conducive to value-oriented investing.” But Luddenklau said the island nation is a haven for some people. “If you’re a high-net-worth individual or a family office, absolutely,” he said.

Another reason the city-state is attractive to these investors is the low prevalence of fraud and financial crime compared to other countries in the region. According to index publisher Sumsub, Singapore ranked 10th in the Global Fraud Index of 112 countries released in October, but fell from 1st to 10th in terms of “fraud prevention ability” from 2024 to 2025.

Howie says the stock market is attractive. “The market just had its strongest rally in 20 years, driven more by profits than by speculation,” he said. benchmark Straits Times Index It rose about 29% in the year to January 28, with banks, industrials, infrastructure and community-based companies performing well.

Kelvin Tan, founder and CEO of Straits42 Group, cited residential real estate as particularly attractive to US investors. This is because residential properties are exempt from ABSD (Additional Buyer Stamp Duty), a 60% tax on the property price that buyers from most countries have to pay. Nationals of Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein are also exempt from ABSD.

If you’re looking for high risk, high return, Singapore may not be for you. But is Singapore a boring market as some have suggested?

“I think this tag has something to do with low returns and limited storytelling,” Howie said. “Today, it is better described as being able to invest with confidence. In a world where investors increasingly value resilience, governance and downside protection, that reputation may become a strength rather than a weakness.”

“Investors don’t want surprises,” Ludenklau said. “They want predictability and Singapore gives them that.”

—CNBC’s Anniek Bao and Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.