Four Forfeited Martin Modern and Wallich Homes Sell for S$16.28m

A 764 sq ft, 26th-floor Martin Modern two-bedder drew four bids and sold for S$2.12 million on 23 September 2026. Elsewhere that day, a 6,727 sq ft South Beach Residences penthouse opened at S$25.32 million and received no bid.

The contrast was striking. Buyers spent S$16.28 million on four forfeited homes at Martin Modern and Wallich Residence, while most of the other prime apartments offered alongside them went unsold.

The four homes that sold

The two Martin Modern sales involved identically sized two-bedroom units. The 26th-floor home fetched S$2.12 million, while a 17th-floor unit sold for S$2.08 million.

At Wallich Residence, a 1,991 sq ft home on the 61st floor sold for S$6.60 million. The other completed sale was a 1,658 sq ft unit on the 53rd floor, which fetched S$5.48 million.

Based on those reported prices and floor areas, the implied rates were about S$2,775 per sq ft (psf) and S$2,723 psf for the Martin Modern homes. The Wallich Residence units worked out to approximately S$3,315 psf and S$3,305 psf respectively. These are mastREplan calculations describing the four auction results.

The bidding for the 26th-floor Martin Modern home also shows that an auction need not proceed neatly from the opening call. It reportedly opened at about S$2.24 million, received a counterbid of S$2.05 million and eventually sold for S$2.12 million.

Most of the other lots found no buyer

Six Martin Modern units and four Wallich Residence units were offered at the auction. Only two from each development sold, leaving the other six withdrawn without a completed sale.

A separate auction that day ended without a sale across eight residential lots and a Kaki Bukit factory. The factory attracted a S$3.1 million offer against an opening price of S$3.63 million, while the South Beach Residences penthouse received no offer.

A successful bidder at that separate auction would have had to pay a 10% deposit on the day and complete the purchase within 10 weeks. That required buyers to arrive ready to make a large commitment, rather than simply test their interest.

The observable result was selective demand rather than a uniform response to every forfeited property. Buyers competed for particular combinations of development, unit size and total price, but passed on most of the other homes available that day.

Were the four homes bargains?

The published figures do not establish that. An auction’s opening price is not necessarily its reserve price—the confidential minimum the vendor will accept—so selling below an opening call does not by itself demonstrate a discount to the vendor’s minimum.

Judging value against the wider resale market would also require recent transactions for genuinely comparable units, including their floor, facing, condition, layout and sale date. URA provides a public residential transaction-search service, but no unit-level set of comparable sales was independently verified for this report.

The calculated psf figures are therefore useful for comparing these four outcomes with one another. They should not be treated as proof of a bargain or as a new benchmark for either development.

Part of the S$3 billion asset disposal

The four homes were forfeited in connection with Singapore’s 2023 money-laundering case. As at 31 December 2024, approximately S$2.79 billion in related assets had been surrendered to the State.

Those assets included cash as well as non-cash holdings, with the latter being progressively liquidated through processes such as these property auctions.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has also said that no identifiable victims in Singapore had been attributed to the forfeited assets being auctioned from the case.

For buyers following the remaining disposals, the clearest lesson from 23 September is a narrow one: four specific homes secured commitments, while most of the day’s high-end lots still lacked a buyer willing to accept both the property and the auction terms.