# Elevated above higher ground

- **Source:** EdgeProp Singapore
- **Published:** 2026-08-04T02:00:00.000Z
- **Author:** Ku Swee Yong
- **Original:** https://www.edgeprop.sg/property-news/elevated-above-higher-ground
- **Topics:** New Launches

## Featured rationale

Growth in ultra-high-net-worth wealth may strengthen demand for scarce, resilient homes designed for multigenerational ownership, potentially favouring bespoke properties in elevated, low-density enclaves.

## AI summary

The article defines a new pinnacle of luxury housing, termed a “presidence”, through three criteria: prestigious address, enduring substance, and space and security.

## Original article

Amid the hype and fluff around luxury residential property launches in the various corners of Singapore, I wrote an opinion piece defining luxury homes in January 2013. At that time, Forbes counted 1,426 billionaires in the world, holding a combined US$5.4 trillion. The 2026 list counts 3,428 of them, worth US$20.1 trillion ($25.9 trillion).

In its 20th edition, Knight Frank’s The Wealth Report 2026, puts the number of individuals worth more than US$30 million at 713,626, a third higher than five years ago, with 89 people somewhere in the world crossing that threshold every day. In June, when SpaceX listed on the Nasdaq, Elon Musk became the first person in history to be worth a trillion dollars. The apex of the wealth pyramid has risen to an altitude where the word “luxury,” as property agents and property developers tout it, is already inadequate.

In 2013, I posited that a luxury residence is defined by two criteria: the address and the interiors. That definition still holds, as it still serves the average millionaire well. Put these two together in a well-built house and we have what is called the “collectibles”: the bespoke freeholds that hold their value across generations, the homes of the ultra-high-net-worth individuals and, increasingly, of the family office.

However, a new tier of criterion is needed today, a crown that sits above the first two. Buyers at this tier do not ask what a home costs. Whether the figure is US$20 million ($25 million) or US$200 million, or US$1,000 psf or US$10,000 psf, is beside the point.

What they ask is whether it is worth owning. Worth owning means the home, or in this case the “presidence”, carries what I would call a “life scenario”: a presidence answers the needs of a household at every stage of a lifespan — from birth to marriage and from old age to death, then serves the generation that follows.

A presidence defines the pinnacle of luxury homes. However, “luxury,” the word printed on property advertisements and brochures, has been worn too thin and is an unworthy adjective. The presidence takes its measure from the residences of heads of state — the Versailles, the Schönbrunn, the Hofburg, Windsor Castle and the Ninomaru-goten Palace at Nijō Castle. These are homes built so well, by the finest hands of their age and from materials chosen to endure, that they have stood for centuries and will stand for centuries more.

A home may be classified as a presidence only if it satisfies all three criteria.

Criterion one: The address

While a palace may be the best residential property in a city, every neighbour is ranked beneath the occupants of the palace. However, a presidence is set among peers, in an enclave where each household is of comparable standing, because the company a home keeps is part of what the home is.

Tokyo’s Denenchofu, Japan’s first garden suburb, has held this quality since 1918. Laid out at low density with plots generous enough for the gardens, tennis courts and swimming pools that the rest of the city can only dream of, its character is preserved by its own building rules, and its residents drawn from the country’s executives, politicians and public figures. When the Great Kanto earthquake levelled central Tokyo in 1923, Denenchofu stood almost untouched, a reminder that location matters as much as how the homes are built.

The finest of such enclaves share a further feature, in that they rest on elevated ground: Bukit Tunku in Kuala Lumpur, Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, Yangmingshan in Taipei, Rokurokusocho near Kobe and Beverly Hills in California all sit above their cities. Height achieves several things at once: it sets a barrier between the home and the casual visitor, that is, privacy; it commands a view; it lifts the house clear of floods and, along a coastline, of tsunamis; and it drains cleanly, which is to say it is more hygienic and healthier ground to live upon.

Criterion two: The substance

For a buyer who is not concerned about the dollar value, what does “value for money” mean? Value, here, is a US$3 million wrought-iron gate forged by hand, a US$200,000 stove, a US$30,000 leather armchair — all built to outlast the five generations who will use them. The materials of the interiors and the craftsmanship of the house itself are important; not an overpriced Dalí painting hung on its wall to be admired and one day resold.

Price psf — the figure that news headlines hype — carries no meaning at this level. Knight Frank’s 2026 figures show that US$1 million now buys 172.2 sq ft in Monaco, 355.2 sq ft in London and 366 sq ft in New York. At this level one is paying for the abundance of space, peace and restfulness, so the psf rate is a meaningless indicator. It is the opposite of the mass-market logic, where developers shrink the units, lift the psf price, and allow the commoner-millionaire a chance to humblebrag.

Criterion three: The space and security

This is the one that the present-day rich and famous demand: space, quiet, health and security. Space and silence come from the low-density suburban location, and from not sharing a wall, a lift or a swimming pool with 400 other households.

Health is clean air, clean water, clean food and the sanity that having room to breathe restores. In Suzhou, the Sangha Retreat has built an entire residential community around precisely this, ordering its architecture, its food and the rhythm of its day around physical and mental wellbeing.

Security has widened far beyond a guardhouse, and at One Hyde Park in London it means purified air, bullet-proof glass, panic rooms, iris scanners in the lifts and a building designed so that residents and their staff move through separate cores and never share a corridor.

It increasingly means autonomy as well: a home with its own reserves of power, water and food, able to sustain its household when the world beyond the gate cannot. Finally, these needs for space, quiet, health, security and autonomy are supported by attentive resident care service, designed to make daily life as seamless as it would be at the world’s finest resorts.

Not every presidence stands on its own grounds: One Hyde Park rises vertically in the heart of Knightsbridge, and in New York City, a single apartment at 220 Central Park South changed hands for around US$238 million in 2019, a figure that shows how little the quantum restrains this buyer.

Singapore has candidates of its own, among them The Marq on Paterson Hill, whose units were built with cross-beams able to bear chandeliers weighing more than 300kg, and the Good Class Bungalow enclave at Chatsworth Road, the nearest thing the island offers to an enclave of presidences.

However, Singapore is among the most densely populated nations on earth. Our built environment is cramped, and on the measure of space alone we cannot hold a candle to the hillsides of Kuala Lumpur, Taipei or Kobe. The Singaporean who wants the full measure of a presidence will, for now, have to find it abroad.

The number of the ultra-wealthy looking for presidences is increasing: 89 individuals with more than US$30 million of investible wealth are added every day. A first trillionaire is already among us; perhaps, a second and a third are not far behind.

But presidences that can attract such wealth: on elevated and quiet ground, among equals, built of substance to last for generations, are not increasing as fast.

The developer who builds to these three criteria is offering more than a property: they are offering a home that fulfils life scenarios across generations. The question, then, is whether bespoke developers and builders will rise to build presidences for prestige, peers and posterity — embodied in the triple criteria of address, substance and security — or leave this growing tier of wealth to seek their crowns elsewhere.

## Chinese translation

> Translation model: grok_cli

### 高居高地之上

随着全球财富增长，住宅越来越以传承、韧性与长期宜居性来衡量，而非价格。

在新加坡各地豪华住宅项目发布的喧嚣与浮夸之中，我曾于2013年1月撰写过一篇定义豪华住宅的评论文章。当时，福布斯统计全球有1,426位亿万富翁，合计身家为5.4万亿美元。2026年榜单则统计有3,428位，身家达20.1万亿美元（约259万亿新元）。

在其第20版报告中，莱坊《2026财富报告》指出，身家超过3,000万美元的个人达713,626人，比五年前高出三分之一，全球每天约有89人跨过这一门槛。6月，当SpaceX在纳斯达克上市时，埃隆·马斯克成为史上首位身家达万亿美元的人。财富金字塔的顶端已升至如此高度，以至于地产代理与开发商所标榜的“豪华”一词，已显得力有不逮。

2013年，我提出豪华住宅由两个标准界定：地段与室内。这一定义至今仍成立，因为它仍能很好服务普通百万富翁。把二者置于一栋精工建造的房屋之中，便形成了所谓的“收藏级”：可跨世代保值的定制式永久地契住宅，是超高净值人士的家园，也越来越成为家族办公室的选择。

然而，今天需要新增一层标准——一顶置于前两者之上的冠冕。处于这一层级的买家不会追问一套房子要多少钱。无论数字是2,000万美元（约2,500万新元）还是2亿美元，是每平方英尺1,000美元还是10,000美元，都无关紧要。

他们要问的是：它是否值得拥有。“值得拥有”意味着这套住宅——在此我称之为“presidence”（总统级宅邸）——承载着我所称的“人生场景”：一座presidence能回应一个家庭生命全程的需求——从出生到婚姻，从年老到离世，并继续服务下一代。

Presidence定义了豪华住宅的巅峰。然而，印在房产广告与宣传册上的“豪华”一词已被用得太滥，已不配作为修饰语。Presidence以国家元首的居所为尺度——凡尔赛宫、美泉宫、霍夫堡、温莎城堡，以及二条城的二之丸御殿。这些居所由当时最出色的工匠以耐久材料精心建造，已屹立数百年，并将继续屹立数百年。

一套住宅唯有同时满足以下三项标准，方可归类为presidence。

标准一：地段

宫殿或许是一座城市中最好的住宅，但宫殿周边的邻居都排在宫殿主人之下。然而，presidence是置身于同侪之中——坐落于每个家庭地位相当的飞地，因为住宅所结交的“邻居”，本就是住宅本身的一部分。

东京的田园调布是日本首个花园式郊区，自1918年以来一直保有这一特质。它以低密度规划，地块宽敞，足以容纳花园、网球场与游泳池——这些是城市其余地方只能梦想的配置；其风貌由自身建筑规则加以维护，居民多来自该国的高管、政要与公众人物。1923年关东大地震夷平东京中心时，田园调布几乎未受波及，提醒人们：地段与房屋建造方式同等重要。

此类最优飞地还有一个共同特征：它们坐落于高地——吉隆坡的武吉通古、香港的太平山、台北的阳明山、神户附近的六麓庄，以及加州的比佛利山庄，都高踞于各自城市之上。高度同时实现多重目标：在住宅与随意访客之间设下屏障，亦即私密性；居高临下尽览景观；使房屋远离洪水，在海岸线附近则远离海啸；排水通畅，也就是说，是更卫生、更健康的居住地面。

标准二：实质

对不关心美元标价的买家而言，“物有所值”意味着什么？此处的价值，是一扇价值300万美元的手工锻铁大门、一台价值20万美元的炉灶、一把价值3万美元的皮革扶手椅——它们都为经得起五代人使用而打造。室内材料与房屋本身的工艺至关重要；而不是在墙上挂一幅标价过高的达利画作，供人欣赏、有朝一日再转售。

每平方英尺价格——新闻标题所炒作的数字——在这一层级毫无意义。莱坊2026年数据显示，如今100万美元在摩纳哥只能买到172.2平方英尺，在伦敦为355.2平方英尺，在纽约为366平方英尺。在这一层级，人们为充裕的空间、宁静与安憩付费，因此每平方英尺单价是毫无意义的指标。这与大众市场逻辑相反：开发商缩小单位、抬高每平方英尺价格，好让“普通百万富翁”有机会humblebrag（低调炫耀）。

标准三：空间与安全

这是当今富豪与名流所要求的：空间、安静、健康与安全。空间与静谧来自低密度郊区区位，以及不必与另外400户人家共用一面墙、一部电梯或一个游泳池。

健康是清洁的空气、清洁的水、清洁的食物，以及有空间呼吸所带来的心智清明。在苏州，松赞retreat围绕这一点构建了整个居住社区，将其建筑、饮食与日常节奏都围绕身心康宁来安排。

安全早已远超门卫室的范畴；在伦敦的One Hyde Park，它意味着净化空气、防弹玻璃、恐慌室、电梯虹膜扫描仪，以及让住户与其员工分走不同核心、永不共用走廊的建筑设计。

它也越来越意味着自主：一座拥有自身电力、水源与食物储备的住宅，能在围墙之外的世界无法运转时维持家庭运转。最后，这些对空间、安静、健康、安全与自主的需求，由细致的住户照护服务支撑，旨在使日常生活如世界顶级度假村般无缝顺畅。

并非每一座presidence都独占地面：One Hyde Park在骑士桥核心区垂直拔地而起；在纽约，中央公园南220号的一套公寓在2019年以约2.38亿美元易手，这一数字显示交易总额对这类买家几乎构不成约束。

新加坡也有自己的候选者，其中包括帕特森山上的The Marq——其单位以可承受重逾300公斤枝形吊灯的横梁建造；以及查茨沃斯路的优质洋房（Good Class Bungalow）飞地——这是本岛最接近presidence聚落的所在。

然而，新加坡是全球人口密度最高的国家之一。我们的建成环境局促，仅以空间衡量，我们无法与吉隆坡、台北或神户的山坡相提并论。希望尽享presidence完整尺度的新加坡人，眼下仍须到海外寻觅。

寻找presidence的超富裕人群正在增加：每天新增89位可投资财富超过3,000万美元的个人。首位万亿富翁已然出现；或许第二位、第三位也不远了。

但能吸引这类财富的presidence——坐落于高而静谧之地、置身同侪之中、以实质建造并供世代传承——却没有以同样速度增加。

按这三项标准建造的开发商，提供的不只是房产：他们提供的是能跨世代实现人生场景的家园。问题于是变成：定制开发商与建造商，会否挺身而出，为声望、同侪与后代建造presidence——体现在地段、实质与安全这三重标准之中——还是把这一不断壮大的财富层级，留给别处去寻觅他们的冠冕。