Seized Condos at Auction: What Four Sales and 15 Withdrawals Really Signal

Singapore’s largest money laundering case has become a property story, and this week it produced its first sales.

As CNA reported, four condominium units seized in the S$3 billion case were sold at auction on Wednesday, September 23, while most of the other 15 on offer received no interest. Two apartments at Martin Modern in River Valley went for S$2.12 million and S$2.08 million. Two at Wallich Residence in Tanjong Pagar went for S$6.6 million and S$5.48 million. The headline lot — a 6,727 sq ft, four-bedroom penthouse at South Beach Residences with a guide price of S$25.3 million — drew no offers and was withdrawn after about five minutes.

The auctions were run by SRI at its Great World City office and by Edmund Tie and Company (ETC) at the UIC Building. They followed a Knight Frank auction on September 17, where none of the seven properties offered found a buyer. The vendor is Deloitte, appointed by the Singapore Police Force in July 2025 to manage and realise the non-cash assets forfeited in the case. More than 80 properties are due to be put up for sale between September and mid-2027, part of the S$3 billion in assets seized after islandwide raids in August 2023.

I’ve spent seventeen years helping families buy and sell homes they intend to hold for a decade or more. Headlines like this tend to get read one of two ways: as proof that prime prices are cracking, or as a sign that bargains are coming. On Wednesday’s evidence, I don’t think either reading holds up.

What actually sold, and at what price?

Here is every lot that found a buyer:

Unit	Opened at	Sold at
Martin Modern, 764 sq ft, 26th floor	about S$2.24m	S$2.12m
Martin Modern, 764 sq ft, 17th floor	about S$2.24m	S$2.08m
Wallich Residence, 1,991 sq ft, 61st floor	S$6.78m	S$6.6m
Wallich Residence, 1,658 sq ft, 53rd floor	S$5.55m	S$5.48m

Two things stand out. First, every sale closed below its opening price, but not far below. These were not fire-sale prints. Second, the bidding had to come up from underneath. On the 26th-floor Martin Modern unit, after a long silence, the first counter bid was S$2.05 million; three more bids took it to S$2.12 million. On the 61st-floor Wallich Residence unit, the first bid was S$6.4 million, then S$6.5 million, then S$6.6 million. Buyers started at their own number and let the room pull them up.

Now look at a unit that didn’t sell. A 29th-floor two-bedder at Martin Modern also opened at about S$2.24 million and drew three bids, the highest at S$2.11 million. It was withdrawn; EdgeProp reported that it did not meet the reserve price. Meanwhile the 26th-floor two-bedder in the same development sold at S$2.12 million.

At an auction, the line between “sold” and “withdrawn” can be very thin — and neither outcome is a valuation of the building.

Why did most of the luxury units get no bids?

The silence clustered at the top. The S$25.3 million penthouse. Four other South Beach Residences units that opened between S$4.3 million and S$6.6 million. Two units at 8 Saint Thomas, opening at S$4.4 million and S$5.7 million. A Paterson Suites unit at S$5.18 million. None received a bid. Two Wallich Residence units — 1,313 sq ft on the 51st floor and 1,755 sq ft on the 54th — also drew no interest.

It would be easy to conclude that the market simply won’t pay above a certain quantum. But the S$6.6 million Wallich unit sold, and it was the most expensive home to find a buyer on the day. SRI’s managing partner Mok Sze Sze put it plainly: higher-priced units are typically less easy to sell, but that property had features that made it rare. It sits on the 61st floor with both sea and city views.

My read is this. At the upper end there are fewer buyers, and each one is more selective. They are not buying “a prime condo”. They are buying one particular unit, and they will only stretch for the one with no close substitute. The Martin Modern two-bedders sit in a price band with a deeper pool of buyers, which is why they drew bids even though bidders started below the opening price. A penthouse sits in a band where one or two serious buyers make the market. If they aren’t in the room that day, there is no market that day.

ETC’s head of auction and sales, Joy Tan, said buyers have their own expectations and that some are still “under the valuation of the price today”. Interest existed before the auction — the penthouse drew over 10 enquiries and eight viewings. What was missing was agreement on price.

Does a withdrawn lot mean prime prices are falling?

Not on its own, and I’d be careful drawing that line.

First, a withdrawal is rarely the end of the process. After the September 17 auction, Knight Frank withdrew seven properties that failed to meet their reserve prices; The Straits Times reported that private treaty negotiations are now under way for all seven. ETC said it will take instructions from Deloitte on whether to go into private treaty talks for the nine properties it withdrew. A good deal of property changes hands after the gavel, quietly, at a negotiated price.

Second, the seller does not appear to be chasing the market down. After the Knight Frank auction, Deloitte’s Justin Lim told CNA there were no plans to revise the reserve prices for the properties going under the hammer on Wednesday. With more than 80 properties to sell through mid-2027, my sense is that the vendor is pacing the sales, not dumping them.

Third, auction rooms are small samples. At ETC, more than 45 people registered but only 11 turned up, with about 30 others walking in. SRI drew between 80 and 90 registered bidders and about 70 people in the room. Ms Mok said some prospective buyers could not attend because of work commitments. A handful of absent bidders can turn a sale into a withdrawal.

If you own a unit in one of these developments, the practical point is simple: a no-bid lot is not your valuation. Your value is still anchored by completed transactions of comparable stacks, floors and sizes. An auction sale is one more comparable to weigh sensibly; a withdrawal is not a comparable at all.

Does the money-laundering link make these homes a bargain?

I hear two readings of the history, and I think both miss.

The first says buyers will shun these homes because of where they came from. Ms Mok’s answer was direct: “Actually, from experience, for property transactions, if there’s a good deal, I think most people just transact. So it’s a matter of whether they like it enough.” Wednesday bears her out. Where the unit and the price lined up, people bid.

The second says the history means distress pricing. That doesn’t fit the results either. The sold units cleared below their opening prices but in the same neighbourhood as them. At ETC’s auction, six of the nine lots opened at their guide prices; the exceptions, ST noted, were three South Beach Residences two-bedders that opened slightly below guide — and they still drew no bids. A discount on the opening price didn’t create a buyer where the price and the unit didn’t already make sense.

What the history does change is the process, not the bricks. The vendor is a professional services firm acting for the authorities, the properties are open to public bidding, and all proceeds go into the Consolidated Fund, as ST reported. For a buyer, that means a formal, professional counterparty. It also means your own lawyer should review the conditions of sale before you raise a hand, as with any auction purchase.

What should you know before bidding at a property auction?

Buying at auction is a different exercise from the private treaty deals most Singapore families are used to. At ETC’s auction on Wednesday, successful bidders had to sign an offer to purchase and put down a 10 per cent deposit on the day. That changes the order of everything.

• Do the homework before the auction, not after. Viewings are held beforehand — ETC conducted eight for the penthouse alone. Walk the unit, check the stack and study recent transactions in the same development.
• Settle your financing first. If the deposit is due on the day, your loan approval and cash position need to be in place before you register, not sorted out afterwards.
• Set a walk-away number and write it down. Bidding moves in steps — the auctioneer called for minimum increments of S$100,000 on the penthouse — and small steps make it easy to go one more.
• Treat the opening price as the vendor’s ask. It is not a valuation. Every winning bid on Wednesday came in under the opening price.
• Know that “withdrawn” can be a second chance. Lots that fail at auction can move to private treaty talks. The ETC auctioneer said they would speak later with the one bidder on the Kaki Bukit factory. If you were in the bidding, stay in touch.

The auction room rewards the buyer who did the work before registering, not the one who is fastest with a paddle.

What this means for families thinking in decades

For the families I work with — often two generations deciding together, and measuring in decades rather than quarters — this week’s results are a reminder of something that holds across cycles. Prime property doesn’t have one price. It has a price per unit, per floor, per view, and per buyer on a given afternoon. The 61st-floor Wallich unit with sea and city views found a buyer at S$6.6 million. Two other units in the same building, lower down, drew none.

With more than 80 properties coming through this channel until mid-2027, there will be many more of these headlines. Read each one the same way: which unit, which floor, what it opened at, what it closed at, and how the bidding moved. That tells you far more than whether a room was full or quiet on the day.

If you’re weighing a purchase in one of these developments, at auction or off it, or wondering what these results mean for a home you already own nearby, that is best worked through with your own numbers on the table — which is what a conversation is for.