Bullion Storage Boom

As a growing number of the world’s wealthiest people boost their holdings of physical gold and silver bullion, there is growing need for facilities that can securely store precious metals. To meet that demand in Asia, a Singapore-based company has just opened a massive vaulting facility there. The Reserve is a 180,000 square foot, six-story secure luxury warehouse that can store 10,000 metric tons of silver and 500 tons of gold, among the highest capacity private vaults in the world. Silver Bullion, the company behind The Reserve built the luxury warehouse as its other major Singapore vaulting facility, The Safe House, ran out of space, and the company anticipates further expansion.

Gold is revered in Asia, particularly in China, the world’s largest gold market. Given growing worries about financial conditions in China, demand for physical precious metals has been particularly strong this year, as gold and silver are outperforming financial markets.

Second quarter demand in the opaque over-the-counter market—off-exchange trading that appeals to ultra-high net-worth investors—soared 53 percent from the year-ago period, its highest level since the World Gold Council began tracking demand more than two decades ago. Demand last year hit 450 metric tons.

Storing precious metals at secure facilities is not cheap, often running above ½-percent of the bullion’s value per year. But a growing number of wealthy individuals believe it is well worth the cost to know that their physical bars and coins are safe, secure, and available to them any time they wish.