| GIC had actually bought the property in June 2007 when the British pound was very strong against our currency at about 1GBP=$3.06. When converted into local currency, the purchase price would be a whopping $1.469 billion. GIC had therefore made a capital loss of about $269 million, a huge embarrassment to the government.
From June 2007 to October 2014, the British currency lost 33% against the Singapore dollar. GIC would of course have made some rental gains which is nothing to shout about – the property was bought near the top of the stock market cycle and rental yields and property prices are inversely correlated. Any net rental gains would have probably been offset by the capital loss and transaction costs. Our CPF investment yielded close to nothing...............................................Full Article: Source
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