The world’s largest duty-free storage area

It’s not just money that Swiss banks have been losing customers of late. With Swiss and other private banks increasingly moving asset protection and wealth management functions to Singaporean subsidiaries, another exciting piece of news recently was the opening of Singapore FreePort.

Singapore FreePort is a state-of-the-art secure storage facility operating in its own duty-free zone adjacent to Singapore Changi Airport. The world’s largest facility of its kind (270,000 square feet to be precise) provides wealthy collectors with tax-free storage for their valuables.

“When you go to a bank and rent a safe, no one knows what’s inside. It’s the same here,” says Alain Vandenborre, chairman and co-founder of Singapore FreePort. “They only need to give a code indicating the general nature of the item: gold, wine, or a painting. There is no value, property, inventory list, all details are confidential. We offer more confidentiality than Geneva.”

Switzerland and neighboring Austria, home to the famous Das Safe, have typically been the jurisdictions of choice for offshore storage of valuables. The duty-free port of Geneva, for example, was established in 1888. But regulations and pressure are encouraging Swiss operators to look elsewhere.

It is therefore not surprising that the majority shareholder is Natural Le Coultre, the largest art storage and logistics operator in the Free Port of Geneva. The new Singapore facility was planned by Swiss architects, Swiss engineers and Swiss security consultants.

Private rooms and vaults, protected by seven-ton doors, line the corridors. However, unlike the Swiss FreePort facilities, which are simply secure warehouses, Singapore’s FreePort sought to combine security and style. A gigantic arched sculpture titled “Cage sans Frontières” (cage without borders) spans the entire lobby.

All in all, this facility seems like a great option for those looking to store valuables in safe, tax-free territory.