Gold draws more Singapore investors as prices climb, access improves

More retail investors and wealthy people in Singapore are turning to gold as rising prices and easier access fuel demand.

At OCBC, the number of customers investing in gold more than doubled in April compared with a year earlier, according to Vasu Menon, managing director of investment strategy at the lender. Roughly 90% of these investors are retail or personal banking customers, The Straits Times reported.

The average amounts invested also rose over 30% year-on-year, raising the investment allocation in gold by nearly five percentage points.

UOB, another lender, has seen a similar surge in demand through its gold savings accounts.

Its head of global markets, Kelvin Ng, said the average number of gold purchases made through these accounts climbed by 85% year-on-year in the first four months of 2025 while the average monthly volume of physical gold traded went up by 64% during the same period.

Meanwhile, gold dealers in Singapore have reported a jump in sales of gold bars and coins this year, especially to wealthy individuals.

Gregor Gregersen, founder of The Reserve, a high-capacity vault for gold and silver storage in Changi, said some ultra-high-net-worth individuals are snapping up S$60-70 million (US$46-54 million) worth of physical gold.

"They're saying, ‘I'd rather... get physical gold, put it in a safe place, and essentially reduce my risk’," he said, as quoted by Channel News Asia .

According to data from the World Gold Council, the city-state's demand for gold bars and coins rose 35% year-on-year to 2.5 tons in the first three months of this year.

This marked the highest growth for the quarter since record keeping began in 2010 despite the metal's meteoric rise, with prices hitting record highs of US$3,000 per troy ounce in March and US$3,500.05 on April 22, as reported by The Business Times . A troy ounce is equivalent to 31.1 grams.

While prices have recently eased to around US$3,350 following an improvement in investor sentiment after trade tensions between major economies began to ease, some analysts believe gold could still retest the US$3,500 level in the coming months.

"We expect gold and silver prices to remain strong and to rise further as long as the political and economic problems continue and we don't see them ending anytime soon," said Jeffrey Christian, managing partner of CPM Group, as quoted by Reuters .

Shaokai Fan, head of Asia-Pacific and central banks at the World Gold Council, noted that the precious metal is relatively liquid and has consistently shown its resilience during times of instability.

"I think that's what caused a lot of investors to still invest in gold despite the fact that the price is relatively high," he noted.

Menon added that the growing interest in gold has been fueled by increasing ease of access thanks to fractionalization, which refers to breaking down a troy ounce of gold into smaller tradable units. This allows individuals to invest in gold without committing large sums upfront and lowering the entry barrier for retail investors.

Retail investors using OCBC’s precious metals trading account can buy or sell in amounts as small as 0.31g of gold via its digital app while UOB’s gold accounts allow them to trade in as little as 5 grams.

Other online platforms go even smaller, with access starting at just 0.1g, according to Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova, an affiliate of Singapore-based investment management firm PhillipCapital Group.

This means that instead of having to invest roughly US$3,400 for a full troy ounce, people can spend just US$10.90 for a 0.1g sliver of gold.

Retail investors are also turning to gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which track gold prices, foregoing the need to hold the physical metal.

Sachdeva said today’s typical retail investor includes much younger, digitally savvy individuals aged 25 to 40. This trend is especially visible in markets like India and China, where the introduction of fractional gold has made it easier for first-time investors to enter the market.

Robin Tsui, gold strategist for the Asia-Pacific region at State Street Global Advisors, said younger investors are turning to gold not only for its perceived safety but also because they seek to profit from the metal’s strong performance over the last half a decade.

"The general trend is that investors are willing to look into gold. If they have gold, they are looking to increase, not decrease," he said.