(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Group LP’s Stephen Schwarzman, who correctly bet on a U.S. housing recovery, is now making a similar wager on Singapore’s luxury property market.
Singapore’s success in using administrative measures to cool its real estate market -- luxury prices have fallen about 20 percent in the past two years while Hong Kong’s have kept rising -- means the restrictions are likely to get lifted, the Blackstone chairman said last week. His firm has been investing in high-end developments over the past four months.
Property has become Blackstone’s biggest profit driver as record-low interest rates and a U.S. economic recovery pushed prices higher. With Singapore poised to hold elections in the next two years, Schwarzman’s call on the luxury segment is a timely one, property analysts said.